Philippians 3:12-4:1 - Pursuing Jesus As A Team

Main Idea: You must choose to live your life as part of a team of faithful believers who pursue Jesus together.

1. OUR TEAM’S IDENTITY (vs. 12-14)

a. We have been captivated by Jesus Christ.

b. We are committed to pursuing His call.

2. OUR TEAM’S MISSION (vs. 15-19)

a. We seek unity in essential beliefs & behaviors.

b. We follow those who follow Christ.

c. We guard against imposter teammates.

3. OUR TEAM’S PLAYBOOK (vs. 20-4:1)

a. We love our hometown.

b. We exercise self-control and patience.

c. We value what our Captain values.

d. We focus on His goals, not our own.

e. We appreciate our teammates.

Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

The Book of Philippians is a letter from the Apostle Paul, and he sends it by the hand of Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus was a pastor at the church at Philippi.

They had sent Epaphroditus with a gift to Paul to say, hey, we know you're under kind of house arrest, imprisonment in Rome, and so we want to take care of you.

While there Epaphroditus got sick, the Philippians heard about it, the Philippians freaked out, Paul and Epaphroditus freaked out.

And so Paul sent back a letter with Epaphroditus once he felt better and said, hey, love you guys, everything's good here. Epaphroditus is okay.

Here's a couple of things that he talked to me about, about what your church is going through and struggles and difficulties and things that you're encountering. And here are some answers from God's word.

And we've been looking at different ways in which Paul has encouraged the Philippians to pursue Jesus, pursuing him through our love for others, through focusing on Christ alone and not our circumstances, focusing on serving others with our life and

not just focusing on ourself, focusing on God's kingdom and living for the next kingdom and not our own, focusing on pursuing Jesus through having a humility and a care and a love for others, through appreciating the servants that God brings into our

life, those that treat us and speak to us in the way that Jesus would if he was here, declaring to us the words of God. And then last week, we looked at the fact that we need to pursue Jesus by trusting him alone, that it's not a pedigree, it's not

your nationality, it's not how religious you are, it's not things you've done. It is trusting in Jesus and his righteousness alone that gives us a relationship with God. That is the entrance by which we can go to heaven if we pass or if Christ were

to come again, that ushers us into his kingdom. It's not human righteousness, it is his righteousness alone. And today, we're going to be in Philippians 3 verses 12 through chapter 4 and verse number 1.

I don't know if you all know this, but the verse and chapter divisions in scripture are not inspired. Like it wasn't that God said, all right, now I want you to write verse 13. Now I want you to write verse 14.

It was all one kind of paragraph, if you will, or several paragraphs. Wasn't broken up sentence by sentence until the 1500s.

And when they did that, they kind of included chapter four and verse one as kind of like a summary statement of everything that went before. And so if it was the Bryon Self Bible, this would be 312 through 322.

But since it's not, we'll just go by what we've used for 500 years or so. Today, we're gonna be talking about pursuing Jesus as a team.

I don't know if you have ever tried this particular exercise, but it's pretty easy to rip one solitary piece of paper all by itself. Do you guys attest to that?

If you took, I wouldn't suggest doing this, but if you took your bulletin today and just went, really easy, it's not a problem. Maybe if you have some severe muscular dystrophy or something, then it might cause you some issues.

But for the most part, one piece of paper, super easy. However, if I were to try to rip the entire Bible here, I'd have a very difficult time. I've seen some strong men that can rip, you know, a phone book in half.

But for most of us, that's way more effort. Things are much stronger when they are working together. Individually, it can be very difficult to stand strong, to stand firm, but together, there is strength.

And in our passage this morning, Paul encourages us to pursue Jesus, to strive to live this Christian life as a team. As Paul begins to end this letter to the Philippians, we're winding down now towards the end.

He is revisiting again the thoughts of teamwork and citizenship and false teachers that we've seen in previous weeks.

Now, however, Paul makes explicit what has just been implicit before, namely that the life of humility and service and love that the Christian is called to is to be modeled after other godly Christians and is to be done in connection with other

Christians. Instead of just generally stating, hey, this is what Timothy is like, or this is what Epaphroditus is like. Paul now is saying directly, imitate me in what I'm doing. Watch and mimic those who are doing what I've told you is good.

A Christian life that is lived, devoid of genuine, honest, iron sharpening, iron relationships with other believers is a life that is headed towards disaster in either beliefs or behavior.

What we'll see from these verses today is that you must choose to live your life as part of a team of faithful believers who pursue Jesus together. Let's see three aspects of this.

I'm going to, knowing both my tiredness and our tiredness as a congregation and some of the things we're going to go through today, going to attempt to go through this at a somewhat rapid pace, would encourage you, if you have more questions, if

you'd like to dive further into this study, would love to talk with you later in the week, would encourage you to study out this chapter on your own. It is so much richer.

We could take weeks and weeks and weeks on this portion of scripture, but we're going to look at the overall highlights. The first aspect of our team of faithful believers that we'll see today is our team's identity.

And we can see this in verses 12 through 14. What makes up the team of faithful believers? Is it people from a specific nationality or a specific political party or a specific set of likes and dislikes in worship?

If we're supposed to be part of a team, who makes up the team? The team of faithful believers has two identity markers. First, that we have been captivated by Jesus Christ.

This is the believers part of faithful believers. The main group of people that you are called to by God himself and his wisdom is those that believe in Jesus Christ. God has given you your family and you have a responsibility to them.

God has given you your job or your friendships, your relationships, and you have a responsibility to them. But you also have a responsibility to those who also believe in Jesus Christ.

Specifically, as I'm looking here at our local church, you all have a responsibility to each other. In verse number 12, Paul says, not that I have already reached the goal, that's that goal of knowing Jesus that he talks about in verse number 10.

He says, it's not that I've already reached the goal of knowing Christ, or I am already perfect, mature, complete. He says, but I make every effort to take hold of that goal because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

We address this point at length last Sunday, but have you personally been captured by Christ? Have you realized the truth that you are in desperate need of both forgiveness from and reconciliation to your maker?

Have you discovered, as Paul the writer here did, that human efforts and righteousness and religious fervor are nothing in comparison to the greatness of the free gift of redemption that Jesus offers to you?

If not, if you don't know that, I invite you to talk to me this week about the salvation and new life you can find in Jesus alone.

For those that are believers here today, is your identity, who you are, how you describe yourself to others, wrapped up in the person and work of Jesus and what he's done for you? That was Paul's identity.

He said, if Jesus grabbed me, he grabbed me for a purpose, and I want to live my life for that purpose.

You could live for yourself, for your family, for your spouse, for bigger and bigger possessions, for a cushier and cushier retirement, for notability in your field.

Or you could live for the purpose of the heavenly king, who wants you to be an ambassador of his kingdom. If you're saved today, if you know Jesus as your Lord, he has captured your heart. Will you live your life for the purpose he saved you for?

Then there's the second marker of our team's identity, that we are committed to pursuing his call.

Verse 13 says this, Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, of that goal, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly

call in Christ Jesus. This may seem obvious, but it's something we need to remind ourselves of. But those that are actually on the Lord's team are those that are committed to pursuing the call of Jesus to accomplish his mission.

If you have someone who calls themself a Christian, but they have no interest in the word of God, the people of God, the church of God or the mission of God, then it's likely they're not on the team and they might not even be a real fan of the team

either. As Paul shows in these verses, those that are on the team are pursuing the purpose that God saved them for. And he highlights three particular tasks that he does in pursuing the call of Christ.

First, he forgets, he overlooks, he neglects what was behind him. For Paul, this was forgetting decades of religious training and fastidious rule keeping.

It was also forgetting guilt from how he had treated people, things that he did wholeheartedly that he now looked back at with horror.

Can I remind us this morning that if you're on Jesus' team, not only are we called to forget the past, but God himself has forgotten your past sins and failures?

Psalm 103 says, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. You can keep going east all of your life, and you will never run into west.

You can keep going west all of your life, and it'll just keep being west. When God has removed your transgressions and failures and sins through what Jesus did on the cross, He'll never find them again.

They're not in the secret drawer that a couple thousand years in the heaven, He'll open up and go, Oh, yeah, I forgot, Pastor Ron, yeah, you really messed up. Sorry, you're out of here. That will never happen.

You are forever forgiven. So we have a responsibility to, if we are pursuing Jesus, pursue Jesus by forgetting the past. It's not about my righteousness.

It's not about my failures and my guilt over what I've done. Instead, I forget what's behind it. I reach forward to what is ahead.

The Christian life should never be about, oh, it used to be so great back when, or it's not like it was in the glory days. No, my friends, this is the day that the Lord has made. Today is the day of salvation.

God is not hamstrung by a shifting political climate or passing fads or maybe an older building. He's the God of the impossible.

Be grateful and thankful for what God has done for you in the past, but realize that He still has more for you to do for Him.

Third, Paul says, not only is he forgetting what's past or reaching forth to what's ahead, he says he is pursuing the prize of God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Are you continuing to pursue God and a relationship with Him today?

Are you stagnant and bored in your relationship with the God and the infinite King of eternity? Continue to dig into your walk with God, dive into His Word, spend time with Him in prayer.

Discover how your life and His plans are intended to work together to accomplish things in you and through you that you could never have imagined.

The Greek word that's underlying pursue here, he says, I'm pursuing Jesus, is the same word that Paul used in chapter 3 and verse 6 for him persecuting the church.

He says, the same way I used to chase Christians and persecute them and imprison them, that's how I'm pursuing Jesus now. Like the world's most devoted DA or PI or bloodhound, Paul went after the early church. It consumed him.

He went house to house finding people to arrest and drag to prison, and he even went on an international trip to do so. Paul knew what it was to pursue something.

But once he learned about who Jesus was and that Jesus had died for him and that Jesus had a plan for his life, he abandoned everything that he used to pursue, and he dove wholeheartedly into pursuing Jesus. How are you pursuing Jesus today?

We see our team's identity that it's made up of those who are captivated by Jesus Christ and those who are committed to pursuing his call. But in verses 15 through 19, we can see our team's mission.

Our mission is three or fourfold, if I remember correctly, from my thing that I wrote, threefold. The first of these is that we seek unity in essential beliefs and behaviors.

The verses say this in 15 and 16, therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way.

He says, I want everyone to think this way about, I haven't arrived, I'm not perfect, I'm not Jesus, I am pursuing Jesus, I'm forgetting what's behind me, I'm reaching forward to what is ahead, and I am pursuing Jesus.

He says, everyone that's mature, think that way. He says, and if in anything, if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. He'll make it clear.

No, no, no, you gotta think this way. He says, in any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. That phrase there, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.

It's the thought we should keep in line. My wife used to teach, was it first grade? And it was always really cute when they had to line up and they had to follow one another.

Maybe they were going outside. Maybe they were going to get a drink, whatever it might have been. It was always really cute when they were in a line.

And I'm sure at times knowing some of the kids that not all of them stayed in the line. And here Paul encourages the Philippians, hey, let's walk in line with the truth that God has revealed to us. Let's not swerve away from it.

Let's not go chasing butterflies. He says, let's stay in line with the truth that God has given us. We seek unity and essential beliefs and behaviors.

If we're not unified, if we're not thinking the same way, then we are in violation of Jesus' prayer to the Father in John 17, where he says, May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you.

May they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. Christian unity is not just a nice ideal. It is a direct command of Scripture.

You don't really get a choice in whether or not you should be unified with other believers in the work and ministry and aim of the gospel. It's kind of non-negotiable. We have to be on the same page.

However, if we're not unified on the right beliefs and behaviors, then we're in violation of several other places in Scripture. We could just say, okay, well, we just need unity among all people of faiths.

And, you know, maybe you believe you need to do this to get saved, and maybe you believe that there's some extra gods, but we just all need to be unified together. No, no, no. That violates several other things in Scripture.

Think of Galatians 1 and 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 John 2 that talk about the exclusive gospel message of Jesus Christ as Lord and God, that if we are not united on that, if we're not unified on that, then there's no unity to be worth having.

But I think of Galatians 5 and 1 Corinthians 6 and Revelation 21 that also tell us that there are behaviors commanded and condemned in Scripture that we can't negate, that if someone says, oh, I want to be a habitual known liar.

I just want to keep on holding on to my sin. I just really want to keep kidnapping people. But I believe all the same things as you do, but I'm busy kidnapping people.

We'd go, no, that's not real. We're not unified on that. We are unified on both our beliefs and behaviors.

Here, he tells the Philippians, if you think differently about anything, so that's your beliefs, your patterns, your mindset. It says, both your beliefs and your behavior. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.

It's both your beliefs and your behaviors that works together. Christianity is not just a mental exercise in things to believe and not believe. It is also the life that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, lives through us.

I think here as well of James 4.17, where scripture says, Therefore, if anyone knows what is good to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. If we know what is right to believe, we have a responsibility to believe it.

If we know what is right to do, we have a responsibility to do it. And we are unified in those essential beliefs and behaviors.

That if you agree on those essential beliefs and behaviors, it doesn't matter if one of you is a Ravens fan, and one of you is a Colts fan. It doesn't matter if one of you is a Red Sox fan, and one of you is an Orioles fan. I see you two.

You have to have unity in these things.

It doesn't mean you can't have a difference of opinion about any number of things below, but you are not going to allow your differences that are not essential to divide you in your mission or in your fellowship.

If you're a team, you got to be unified.

If you have the Ravens and they went out there, and all 11 guys were trying to do different plays on the same play that the center is trying to do, I don't know, for a punt, and the quarterback is thinking he's going to do a quarterback sneak, and

the running back is thinking he's going to do like a trick play where he's going to get it, and then he's going to throw it over to the wide receiver. If everyone's trying to do their own thing, nothing's going to get done.

For us as believers, if we are not united in our beliefs and behaviors, we're not going to get anything accomplished for the kingdom of God. We have to have unity in our essential beliefs and behaviors.

Our team's mission is also that we follow those who follow Christ. Verse 17 says this, join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.

Some people might, they might say, oh, I don't follow any person. I just follow Jesus. When truthfully, they're following the Jesus of their mind and their imagination.

And again, truth be told, they might also be mimicking some other people as well in their life. We are commanded from scripture to see those that are living godly, those that are living like Jesus, and to mimic those behaviors.

It's not that we have to mimic everything that they do. Pastor Ron's got that really nice cross on, cross necklace chain thing around his neck. And I could take this and go, okay, I got to imitate Pastor Ron.

Okay, I guess I got to get a cross. Well, no, no, no, it's not in every aspect, but in the aspects of their character in which they exemplify Jesus, we are to imitate them, we are to follow them. Who are you modeling your life after?

Who are you modeling your life after in how you treat people, how you talk about people, friends, coworkers or enemies? Who are you imitating in your social media posts?

The truth is, while many of us would like to think we're completely new, completely untouched, clean slates of fresh behavior and words and emotions, we're not. We do things a specific way because our parents did them that way.

We say this phrase or word because our favorite TV character or influencer or politician says it. We learned early on at the company from watching others that we could make more friends by trashing the down and outers or the weird ones.

We think a certain way about morality or religion because Oprah said this or Hannity said that. How are we supposed to know how to live like a Christian in this crazy upside down world?

God has given you teammates, those that have themselves imitated and followed others who have followed Christ. Do you want to learn how to give kind and gracious words and responses to mean and kind people? I've learned much from Pastor Ron.

Do you want to learn how to be courageous in sharing your faith? I've seen Roger and Jim speak about and live sharing the gospel with others when it's not easy.

Do you want to learn how to appreciate and be thankful for God's work at Tabernacle over the years? I've been greatly encouraged by hearing from Mary Jane talk about growing up here and seeing what God has done. You are not alone.

You might think your struggles and temptations and difficulties and doubts are unique to you, but I promise you that's just because you haven't interacted enough with the rest of us yet to know that we've been there or are there too.

Join in with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Get to know some of them on a deep personal level and find gold mines of encouragement and life modeling that they can provide for you.

And you'll find you have some areas where you can model for them.

It might be that you have a lot of head knowledge about the Bible and Jesus, and you can help someone that doesn't know much, but genuinely lives it out in their attitudes and words, and they might be able to help you be more gracious and kind with

others. Don't be so foolishly proud that you think you don't need others just because you've been a Christian or been in church for a long time. If you're alive, there's more for you to grow and learn in.

Truth be told, if people were brutally honest with us, our family and friends could tell us exactly what areas we need to grow in. If you want a huge exercise in humility, after today, go on home and go, hey, honey, what are my flaws?

It's one of the scariest questions you will ever ask. I always try and get out ahead of it where I'm like, okay, I'm terrible at this. My fashion sense is awful.

I talk too much. I have this. I try and get out ahead of it because I just, none of us want to be wrong.

But truthfully, we need someone who will tell us, hey, kind of a jerk. Or when you get in this situation, you just become someone totally different. We need someone to speak truth into our lives.

And God has given you teammates, so that you can learn how to be more like Jesus. Lastly, here from Paul's words, part of our team's mission is we guard against imposter teammates.

Verses 18 and 19 say this, I have often told you and now say again with tears that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end, their end result, their goal, their destination is destruction. Their God is their stomach.

Their glory is in their shame and they are focused on earthly things.

I don't know if you've seen maybe in the sport of football sometimes when there's like the offensive huddle and they're deciding what play they're going to run and you have someone from the defense that is just like sneaking over and like trying to

listen in and it happens more in lower levels of football. But you have that imposter teammate that he's trying to figure out how he can really get in.

And the Bible speaks much to those, especially in teaching positions, that they would come into a church and they would not espouse Jesus as Lord or they would espouse Jesus and a bunch of religious things.

And here Paul warns them again, he warned them at the beginning of the chapter about those that were dogs, the evil workers, the false circumcision. And here again, he's reminding them of what these people are like.

Just like we could see who our teammates were because they were captivated by Jesus and committed to pursuing His call.

He says these false ones have kind of this four-fold failure, this description of this is what the jersey looks like for an imposter teammate. It's important to know who is genuinely on your team because how you interact with them will be different.

A conversation that I have with Bill Ledford is going to be different than a conversation I have with an unsaved neighbor. The goals are different.

If you're looking to be unified with your teammates to model what they're doing, then fake teammates who have a different goalpost, a different identity and a different mission are going to lead you in the wrong direction.

My mom played basketball in high school, and her only goal that she scored in high school was in her own team's basket. We want to be headed towards the right goal in life.

I think of the words of either Solomon or David where he says, the one that walks with wise men will be wise, but a companion of fools will be destroyed. I think of Psalm 1.

How blessed is the one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the... You guys remember that one. It's Psalm 1, 1-3, if you want to look it up later.

He says, but Paul says this. He says, their end is destruction. The end result of the beliefs and behaviors that reject Christ and His Word is rejection of life itself.

There's nothing but annihilation at the end of it. I think of the writer of Hebrews, at the end of Hebrews 10, where he goes, if we reject Jesus, like there's no other sacrifice that you can give to God that will atone for your soul.

Like it's Jesus or nothing. If you will, for some of you that have kids, it's Nerf or nothing. It's Jesus or nothing.

When it comes to salvation, there's not another way. Like God says, I paid it all. You don't have to have a payment back plan.

It's all there for you as a gift. If you go, no, what Jesus did, that's not good enough for me. I want to try it my own.

There's no other recourse for you. There's no other hope for us. So he says that end result is rejection of life itself.

He says the God of most people is their desires and appetites, what they want to do and to think. How would you identify a false teammate, an imposter teammate?

They're just concerned about their wants and their desires, what they can get from people, what they can get out of the church, what they can get out of their relationship with you.

He says the glory of the opposing team, their glory is in their shame. The glory of the opposing team is not in behaving like Jesus, but engaging in the behavior that he forbids.

They say, okay, I know God says this in his word, but I think it'd be fine if I did this. After all, like, is it really that big a deal? I know God says it's a big deal, but do I really think it's a big deal?

That is a clear indication you are working with either an imposter teammate or someone that has been also led astray, that they've accidentally linked up, been walking with someone that is not a teammate.

Then lastly, he says that they are focused on earthly things. The focus of the earthly team is this world's politics, wealth, citizenship, possessions and relationships.

If all someone ever talks about or cares about or brings you into or all they ever post, all that ever comes out of their mouth has to do with this earth and never anything about God, never anything about souls, never anything about the word, never

anything about Jesus, then that should alert us to the fact, oh, okay, someone's got a different goalpost that they're currently running towards. Now, what's the reaction that we have to imposter teammates?

Is it, okay, you get out of here, we don't want you. No, no, no, no, no. Because as evidenced by Paul's life, the best players on the other team will also make the best players on your team.

We share the gospel, we invite them to faith in Christ, and we see how God can turn someone's life around, that someone that was just engulfed in all of these earthly things, how it can change all around.

And we can see that, lastly, in our team's playbook. This is verses 20 through chapter 4 and verse 1. He says this, Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

So then, my dearly loved and longed-for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown, in this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.

So each one of the things that characterize the playbook, the identity of the opposing team, there's kind of an opposite thought for our team's playbook. Their end is destruction, but our citizenship is in heaven.

Their God is their stomach, their appetites, their desires. But instead of us instantly wanting our desires, we eagerly wait for a Savior. Their glory is in their shame.

The things that should make them ashamed that they're doing because it's against God, that's what they glory in. But we glory in, they're in verse number 21, in His glorious body. We glory in Jesus and who He is and being like Him.

They are focused on earthly things, and we're focused on the fact that He is subjecting everything to Himself. That instead of earthly kingdoms being built up, we're focusing on His kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven.

First in our team's playbook from verse number 20, we see that we love our hometown. I'm not talking about Essex or Middle River or wherever you're at. Our citizenship, our hometown is heaven.

This word here, citizenship, is really cool when it comes to the town of Philippi. As I've mentioned before, this was a town that was the site of a great Roman victory.

And so the Roman Empire made it a Roman city that it didn't have to pay the imperial tax. And as a result, they also gave sections of land to people that had served in the Roman military and would give them plots of land.

For those people, they were not living in Italy anymore, where their hometown was, where their real country was. They were living in an outpost where they had all of the same laws. They observed the same customs.

They paid the same lack of imperial taxes as those in Italy. For you and I, this world, as it is right now, is not our home. We're not stuck here forever.

Instead, our citizenship is in heaven, just like here these, if you will, colonists in Philippi, Roman soldiers living in Greece, living in Macedonia, those people far away from home, but they knew who they really were.

They knew what they had done, what kingdom they were working for, who they owed their allegiance to. May we do the same thing, that we love heaven.

Matthew 6 says this, Don't store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don't

break in and steal, store up your treasures in heaven. Jesus and Matthew 28, Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have

commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age. Our great commission, our marching orders, are to build His kingdom, not our own.

Colossians 3, 1 through 4 says this, So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.

For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. We love our hometown.

We exercise self-control and patience. We eagerly wait for a Savior. Bruce Corinthians 9 says, Don't you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize?

It says, run in such a way to win the prize. Don't just coast through your Christian life. Don't do like a leisurely walk.

You are in a race. Live it like it's a race. Live with a desire to pursue, to go after the work and person of Jesus.

Live it in devotion to that exercise, that self-control that maybe you'd say, well, I could sleep in or I could read my Bible or I could go to church or I could do some other thing.

Let's have a desire to have self-control that we are eagerly waiting for a Savior. We're not just sitting with, you know, it's eager.

We are waiting for it that when he comes, there is a prize to be given there in Philippians 3, the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We exercise self-control and patience. We value what our captain values.

Verse number 21, he will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body. If you had to think about what you need to improve in your life, you might think about your physical appearance.

You might think about your monetary value and assets. You might think about a better place to live. You might think about better relationships.

While all of those, God cares about, and he has things that he says about them, God is most concerned about you looking more and more like Jesus every single day.

Romans 8, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he did for no, he also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his dear son.

So God wants you to look like Jesus, look more and more like Jesus. As time goes on, have that value that I want to care about what Jesus cares about.

First John 3, Dear friends, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We don't know what we're going to look like in the next life.

We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is, and everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.

The fact Jesus is coming again, the fact that we would sing, even so come Lord Jesus demands that we go, okay, I don't want to be slacking off when he comes. Like I want to be pursuing him. I want to be able to be happy when he shows up.

And it won't be, you know, mom coming home a little bit early, and you didn't get any of the chores done that you were supposed to get done before she came home. And you go, sorry about that.

We ought to have a desire to value what Jesus values, that we would be about his business. We focus on his goals, not our own. There in the end of verse 21, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

His subjecting everything to himself includes you, includes your goals, includes your life. He wants to bring everything in creation, including my desires, my actions, my will, my friendships.

Everything about me needs to come in line with his goals, not my own. Second Peter 1 says, His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

By his glory and goodness, he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in his divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. What's his goal?

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love.

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We focus on his goals that our life would look more like Jesus. We don't focus on our own goals.

And then lastly, from chapter 4 and verse 1, we appreciate our teammates. So then, my dearly loved and longed-for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown in this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends. He calls them dearly loved.

Do you love your fellow believers at Tabernacle? How can you show it this week? He calls them longed-for.

Do you view church as something you can or should attend, or something that you eagerly want to be a part of? Do you long to see your fellow Christians? If you don't, pray.

Ask God to give you that desire. God wants to place that in you. He calls them brothers and sisters.

Brothers and sisters know each other. They might frustrate each other. They might know all the buttons to press, but they actually know one another.

You're part of the same family of God. Do you know each other? If not, who can you begin to get to know this week?

He calls them his joy. Are you happy to know and to have the other people in our church?

If not, can I encourage you that Jesus adores these people, that he died for them, that his Holy Spirit lives inside of them, and you are called to, despite their flaws and failures, love and enjoy these people like he does. He calls them his crown.

He says, what you all do as a result of my ministry to you, of my love for you, it is my shining achievement.

He says, I'm not like patting myself on the back of, oh yeah, I'm such a great Christian, and I do all these things, and I memorize this portion of scripture, and I pray this long.

No, no, he says, my crown, the thing that I'm putting on my head that I'm like, yes, I did it, is the effort and love that I put in other people.

Are other people, your prayers for them, your love for them, your investment in them, is that what you're focusing on, or just your own religiousness? He closes out, calls them dear friends. It's the same word as dearly loved there at the beginning.

You are called to be friends with those in your church. You might say, oh, I'm great with that, with my group of like four. No, no, no, no, no.

Despite our flaws, despite our failures, we are called to befriend one another as Christ Jesus has befriended us. Jesus was betrayed by Judas, one of his 12 closest friends. He was abandoned by all 12 of his disciples.

I think if he was betrayed to the death and abandoned to crucifixion on a cross, then we can have some patience and some long suffering in our relationship with other imperfect people who are just as imperfect and sinful and flawed and failures as we

are. Today, in conclusion, you must choose to live your life as part of a team of faithful believers who pursue Jesus together. It's not going to happen just by happenstance. You got to choose it.

Have you ever chosen to be a part of Jesus' team? If you haven't, I invite you. Please talk to me.

We've got our covenant members business meeting today, so I would say, set up an appointment with me for this week. We will talk about it. Talk to Pastor Ron.

He would love to share the gospel with you. If you got a friend or a family member here today, talk with them. They would love to talk with you about how you can know that you are on Jesus' team through His righteousness, through accepting Him alone.

Will you intentionally include your teammates in your life so you can learn from them and grow with them? The call of Paul in this chapter is, hey, scope out, look for the people that look like Jesus.

Maybe they don't completely look like Jesus, but in an area in which they do look like Jesus, maybe not everyone is like as doctrinally good, and maybe not everyone is as kind and loving, but we can learn things from one another.

It doesn't mean you have to adopt everything from what that person does, but will you intentionally include your teammates in your life so you can learn from them and grow with them?

And lastly, will you live out Christ's playbook for your life this week? The opposing team has their own playbook, and it doesn't work. None of the plays end in a goal.

The playbook of Jesus will always pay off. A love for heaven, living for his kingdom, will always pay off. Exercising self-control and patience, those fruits of the Spirit will bring you endless joy and goodness in your life.

We value what our captain values. We say, if Jesus thinks it's important, I think it's important. We focus on his goals, not our own, and we appreciate our teammates.

Let's stand together, and take a moment to pray, and then sing a song, When We See Christ, that communicates this thought of if we are living our Christian life, we're not just living it for the here and now, we're living it because Jesus is coming

again, because one day he will change our body, so that it is like his glorious body. One day there will be a reward.

One day there will be a new kingdom, a new earth, and we're living for that kingdom, not our own, and you're not going alone, you're living it as a team.