Philippians 1:27-30 - Pursuing Jesus By Seeking His Kingdom

Main Idea: Live your life as though only God’s kingdom matters.

1. His kingdom matters more than our desires.

a. Our desires can’t give us eternal life.

b. Our desires can’t build His kingdom.

2. His kingdom matters more than our individuality.

a. We can be established together.

b. We can be encouraged together.

c. We can have direction together.

d. We can see His victory together.

3. His kingdom matters more than this world’s.

a. Their fear is empty.

b. Their destruction is imminent.

c. His rescue is certain.

4. His kingdom matters more than our comfort.

a. Your justification came through His suffering.

b. Your sanctification comes through suffering.

c. Your glorification will come at the end of suffering.

Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Let's go over to the Book of Philippians.

We are in Philippians 1, and starting in verse 27 today, we have been in a series, I think this is week four, in our One Pursuit series, that here the Apostle Paul is encouraging the church at Philippi to have one pursuit, one goal, one passion that

they are working towards as a church. And that one pursuit is Jesus. There are many things we can pursue, but the only worthwhile one, the only lasting one, is to know Christ, to grow in His word, and to show His love to others. That is our pursuit.

If you weren't here over the past couple of weeks, we talked, the Book of Philippians is a letter written from the Apostle Paul to the church at Philippi. They had heard that he was imprisoned in Rome for preaching the gospel.

They had sent a gift with one of their pastors to be a blessing to him. And that pastor kind of told Paul what was going on at the church, both the good things and some of the troublesome things.

And Paul sent back a letter to them, thanking them for their gift and encouraging them with what God had for their particular congregation. Paul told them, I'm so thankful for you. I'm praying for you.

He told them, I am still accomplishing the mission of preaching the gospel that God has for me, even though I'm in prison. God did it so that all of the Imperial Guard and everyone that the Imperial Guard knows, knows that I am here for Jesus.

And then last week, we looked at the fact that Paul says, I kind of want to be with Jesus. I want to be in heaven, but I know that it's more important for me to be here for you as a church.

And so I know that God's going to have me released so that I can come and encourage you and help you in your Christian walk. And today we are looking at pursuing Jesus by seeking His kingdom.

And when we think about the kingdom of God, it can be kind of a ethereal setting. It's something that doesn't seem very practical, very real, very every day for us. But I want us to consider what Jesus said about His kingdom in Matthew chapter 6.

He says this, Therefore I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? Consider the birds of the sky.

They don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. Aren't you worth more than they are? And why do you worry about clothes?

Observe how the wild flowers of the field grow. They don't labor or spin thread.

Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, the kind of most rich, most elaborate, most decked out king in all of Israel, not even Solomon in all of his splendor, was adorned like one of those wild flowers.

If that's how God clothes the field of the grass, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't he do much more for you, you of little faith? So don't worry saying, what will we eat? Or what will we drink?

Or what will we wear? For the Gentiles, those that aren't in God's family, they eagerly seek all those things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

As we pursue Jesus by seeking his kingdom, we saying at the very beginning, the Lord's Prayer, God, may your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

Our mission, why we are here as Christians, is to prepare this earth as much as we can in the short time that God gives us. We are to make the areas around us a little more like heaven each and every day.

And one day he will come and he'll complete the job entirely. When we are trying to bring his kingdom, we can do so in little steps. We can show kindness.

We can invite people to faith in Christ. We can be working on those things. We can't do it completely.

When he comes, he is going to bring the kingdom in its entirety.

But what Paul tells the Philippians here is that as we are doing the work of being little, I've heard it said outposts, we are little embassies of heaven all across the world today in our churches, in places where it might be illegal to be a

Christian or illegal to proselytize. You have house churches, these little beacons of light all across our world that are showing God and His kingdom to the world around us.

And Paul encourages the Philippians, as we do that, live our life as though His kingdom is the only one that matters. Live your life as though only God's kingdom matters. We're going to see this first in verse number 27.

We're going to see that God's kingdom matters more than our desires.

As Paul walks through some different things that he encourages the believers to do and some things that he encourages them not to do, all of it stems from the fact that God's kingdom is more important.

First, we see it's more important than our desires. Verse number 27 starts off, just one thing, as citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ. It says, as citizens of heaven, this word is politiuamahe.

It's literally taken from that same root word as politics. It's to behave as a citizen. Some translations have it a little bit more dynamically phrased as, live your life in this way.

Let your lifestyle be this. But the most literal rendering is, as a citizen, you are to live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ. To behave as a citizen is to avail yourself to that particular nation's laws and benefits.

You're going to behave like you are a citizen of heaven. Do you know that there's certain things that you can do here in the US that you might not be able to do in another country?

If you just want to say whatever you want to say against maybe rulers, congresspeople, a president, you are perfectly able, unless you're making death threats or something, you're perfectly able to do that here in America.

You can go on a news station and say, they're the worst, this or that. I can't believe that this person, and you will be totally fine.

If you try some of those same things, perhaps maybe in Russia or in Iran or some of those places, you might discover that you are not behaving like a citizen. You are not a citizen of that country.

And while specific countries have things that they allow and things that they don't allow, the same is true with our citizenship in heaven. Paul's going to address this later in Philippians 3, where he says that our citizenship is in heaven.

This was a big deal for the Philippians. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Philippi was a city that much land was given to former soldiers in the Roman Empire.

These men would have worked very hard for many years in order to earn the right to be a citizen, that they would no longer have to pay the imperial tax.

They could, if they wanted, exercise the same right that Paul did, which was the reason why he was in Rome, that he could appeal to Caesar himself to hear his judicial case. This was the right of the Roman citizen.

So these people knew what it was to be a citizen. They had worked very hard to become one. I'm sure in a room this size, there might be those that at one point or another have pursued citizenship and become an American citizen.

And it's a pretty long process, and you have to learn a lot of things, and you have to do some things correctly in order to become a citizen of America.

And I'm thankful that as citizens of heaven, it's not that we do a bunch of things in order to become a citizen. It is what Jesus has done on the cross that has made us citizens, that we are adopted, we're brought into the kingdom of Christ.

But now that we're here, now that we are citizens, now that one day, whether we pass or whether the Lord comes back, we are going to be citizens of heaven, there are some things that are incumbent upon us.

There are some laws that we are to observe, some benefits that we are to enjoy. And as it relates to God's kingdom mattering more than our desires, as we behave like citizens of heaven, we need to see that our desires can't give us eternal life.

He says, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ. That we can live in such a way that we say, I am not acting like I am a citizen of heaven, I'm acting like I'm a citizen of this world.

And we need to be reminded again and again that we have been made new. We are no longer who we were. Our natural desires, our natural tendencies, what we do in and of ourselves without the influence of God, it bars us from eternal life.

1 Corinthians 6 says this, Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom? Do not be deceived.

No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God's kingdom.

He says, and some of you used to be like this, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. God tells us this, that in and of ourselves, we are destined to hell.

We are destined for separation from God, both in this life and in the next.

And if we have been saved from sin, if we have been saved from the penalty of hell forever, then we ought to live as though we are a citizen of the new kingdom, not a citizen of the old kingdom.

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul wrote this, I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world, or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters. Otherwise, you would have to leave the world.

He says, I didn't tell you to stay away from everyone that partakes in these sins, that acts like they are a citizen of this world. Otherwise, you would have to leave the world in order to find a place and find people to interact with that don't sin.

He says, but I told you, stay away from those that claim to be citizens of heaven, but are actively, habitually living as though they are citizens of this world.

He says, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.

For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don't you judge those who are inside? God judges outsiders.

Remove the evil person from among you. Our desires cannot give us eternal life. No matter how much you are selfish, no matter how much you are trying to fill the void in your life with everything other than Christ, it cannot reconcile you to God.

It cannot give you a right standing with the Lord. That's why Jesus came. Because all of us were citizens of this world.

The Bible says that all have sinned and come short of God's glory. The Bible says that there is a punishment for sin, that the wages, the earnings for our sin is death, condemnation.

But the Bible says that when we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So there are two kingdoms. They are different kingdoms.

God has rescued us from the one. And Paul here says, behave, act like you are a citizen of this kingdom, no longer a citizen of this kingdom.

He says because what you used to do, what you used to be involved in, what your behavior used to be, did not make you right with God. It did not help your relationship with the Lord.

He says, so don't continue to do all of the things that did not help you. But not only can our desires not bring us eternal life, so we should focus on his kingdom, because his kingdom brings eternal life, our desires can't build his kingdom.

We can live lives that build God's kingdom here on earth, or if we live the way we naturally want to, we can communicate through our words and actions and attitudes that we don't care about God's kingdom, or that we don't believe that it's coming.

We should not have a mindset that says, okay, I'm going to do me, and if I have time to help out with some kingdom tasks, great, no, no, no. We ought to be living all of our life going, okay, God, I've got a family.

How can I build your kingdom in my family? How can I build your kingdom in my workplace? How can I shine the light?

How can I show your love to others? How can I invite others into the kingdom? That ought to be our focus.

1 Corinthians 3, Paul says this, we are God's co-workers. You are God's field, God's building.

According to God's grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder and another builds on it, but each one is to be careful how he builds on it. So as of today, you are all working in construction.

You are all bricklayers. You are all enlisted in building God's building, his temple, his holy kingdom. You're all enlisted, but take care how you build, he says.

For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid. That foundation is Jesus Christ. So Jesus is the foundation of the building.

If you're not building on Jesus, you're not building God's kingdom. If you're building maybe a great work to yourself, a great work to society, that might be all well and good, but it's not his kingdom.

It has to be on the foundation of Jesus, that what he says, what he does, his attitude, his character, determines how we build our life.

He says if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, or wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will become obvious for the day, the day of judgment when God comes again, it will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire.

The fire will test the quality of each one's work. If anyone's work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Don't you yourselves know that you are God's temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy, and that is what you are. God says you are now part of the kingdom.

He says you yourself are the temple. And we can build our lives, either based on the works of this world, what is wood and hay and stubble, the things that don't make it through the trials, the testing, the fire that comes through life.

But if we build on Jesus and look to him in everything that we're doing, if we're building our foundation on him, building our interactions, building our schedules around what exalts Jesus, then when trials come, when the heat of this world, when

Satan comes through and says, hey, have you considered my servant John? Then as those trials come, then what comes out of it is what is pleasing to the Lord, is a foundation, good works that are built on it.

Owen back in Small Groups a little bit earlier mentioned Ephesians 2.10. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we would do them. God has prepared some good works for you to do.

God has some building materials, some gold and some silver and some precious stones for you to build your life with, that it wouldn't be for your own glory, it would be to build the foundation of Jesus.

God's kingdom matters more than our desires, so are you building your life like God's kingdom doesn't exist? Are you spending your time entirely on this world? Are you spending time building God's kingdom?

With your words, are you spending more time talking about this world's kingdom or the heavenly kingdom? Are you spending your money? Are you doing it with a mindset of what does God say?

Or are you simply spending it on this world?

Whatever we do, we need to realize just our natural bend, our natural desire isn't going to give us eternal life, it's not going to give us a relationship with God, it's not going to benefit us, and it's not going to benefit the kingdom.

So we need to focus on God's kingdom because God's kingdom matters more. This week, will you sacrifice what you want to do to follow what your king commands?

Paul would say it this way in Colossians 3, if you've 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 in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. He says, if you have been saved, remember you're not a citizen here anymore. You transferred citizenship over to the new kingdom.

So God's kingdom matters more than our desires. God's kingdom matters, second, more than our individuality.

We can see this in verse number 27, in the latter part, then whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you, that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel.

There's a lot that he's saying here, but he says, I want you to act like citizens of heaven, so that whether I'm able to come to you guys again, or if I'm just hearing about, oh, did you hear about the Philippian church? I don't know about you guys.

I've lived long enough now that I get a little nervous whenever I hear, hey, did you hear about so-and-so? I haven't had enough times where that's a good thing. And Paul says when someone says, hey, did you hear about the Philippian church?

He says, I want to hear this about you, that you are standing firm is the first part of what he says. We can see that God's kingdom matters more than our individuality, that God's kingdom is bigger than you.

You are not a lone ranger, saved all by yourself, for yourself, and if you interact with other people, that's okay. No, no, no, you are saved corporately.

You are saved together, that God placed you when you received Christ, the Holy Spirit placed you into the body of Christ. You are connected to other people.

And if we're going to act like God's kingdom is the only one that matters, then we have to realize his kingdom means I've got to give up some of my individuality, that I need to interact and love other people.

We can see first in God's kingdom mattering more than our individuality that we can be established together. He says this, standing firm. When we stand firm, we can be established together.

You were not saved alone. You were made part of God's own family, his holy nation, his royal priesthood.

When we realize that and follow his design, it helps each of us to be able to maintain our faith in a way that we couldn't if we didn't have other people helping us up. I believe I mentioned this. Everything is running together.

I mentioned it at some point. If it was last week, then God has this for a reminder for you. When we stand together, you're able to lift up the arms of someone else.

That maybe they've been going through a terrible week, and they don't know if God is there. They don't know if God hears them. They don't know if they have sinned too much, that they are now completely alienated from God.

They don't know if they can continue to go on. They don't know if they can beat this sin that they're struggling with.

And when you choose to leave your individual kingdom and partake in God's, you can come alongside someone else and encourage them and tell them, hey, you can keep going. Hey, I've struggled where you're currently struggling, and I've seen victory.

And I want to encourage you that you, too, can see the victory that God brings. It might be that we say, hey, I've gone through the loss that you're experiencing right now, and I can tell you that God gives grace, that you can make it through.

You are not alone. You are not forgotten. God is there for you.

When we choose to leave our isolation and come into God's kingdom together, we can encourage each other to stand firm. Jude 1, verses 22 and 23 says this, have mercy on those who waver, those that are flailing in their faith.

He says, save others by snatching them from the fire. Have mercy on others, but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. In Galatians 6, Paul would say it this way.

He says, I'm going to turn it over there. It's just one couple pages.

He says this, brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves, so that you also won't be tempted. Carry one another's burdens.

In this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ. Ecclesiastes 4 says this, two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their efforts.

For if either falls, his companion can lift him up, but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm, but how can one person alone keep warm?

And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. As we see God's kingdom, that we have to give up some individuality, we see that we can be established together as God's kingdom.

We can stand firm. It says you can stand firm in one spirit. This is the inner you.

This is a person's mind and will and emotions. This is who you truly are. Outside of all the trappings, outside of your health or lack thereof, who you truly are is united with everyone else in your church.

That there is one spirit. Not only can we be established together, we can be encouraged together with one spirit. What do you think of when you think of other people in the church?

Is the first thing that comes to your mind an area of disagreement with a person? Is the first thing that comes to mind a complaint or a judgment? We are called to have one common spirit.

That who we truly are. Outside of all the preferences and things on the outside, we are called to have one unifying driving force behind us that animates us to action.

And the third person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is the one who is our commonality. 1 Corinthians says this, just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body, so also is Christ.

So this pinky is mine, even though it's not this pointer finger or this ear. It's all part of one body. And so even though DC isn't Jim, and Jim isn't Mary or Randy, all of us together are called to be one.

We have one Spirit. And that Spirit ought to call us to encouragement, to a forward motion, to a propelling to what God has for us. That when we think about other people in the church, we wouldn't think, ah, that person cut me off in the parking lot.

Or, oh, that person, I know I really don't like all the same this or that as that person. Our minds should not be led to division in the church, but we are called to be one, to have one common driving force together.

If we have the same spirit, then we have the same future. And we can encourage one another in that.

If we are to stand together in one spirit, it means that we would have some talking about that commonality, that we wouldn't spend all our time talking about what divides us or what we disagree on, but that we would focus on that same future that we

have. We are citizens of heaven. We know that God has work for us to do. We know that God has people for us to worship.

We know that God has people to reach that we would have that same future. We are going through the same process of sanctification.

So if there's someone that is falling behind in an area of sanctification where maybe they're caught up in living for this world or living all by themselves, that we would be able to encourage them and say, no, no, don't do life alone.

Do it with other believers. We know that you're struggling with sin, but I want to encourage you. You can overcome sin.

Why do I know that you can overcome sin? Because the Holy Spirit is in you just like He is in me. And I've seen Him conquer sin in my life, and I know He can conquer sin in your life.

If we have the same Spirit, we have the same goal, which is His fruit. So many times people can work to different ends.

Some people, if we just open it up to a giant forum today and said, all right, you get to pick 100% of the things that happen at Tabernacle Baptist. I get the feeling there might be some various different ideas that might emerge.

One person might say, okay, great. I want everything in the room painted black, and I want a disco ball right there, and I want only songs that have been written after 2023 for us to sing.

Some people might say, I want the whole thing renovated, and I want it to look like we are in 1600s, and we're meeting in one of those barn churches that we're hiding away from the Church of England and kind of that state religion, and I want us to

only sing songs without any instruments, just voices. It might look like a bunch of different things if our goal was, okay, whatever you want is what the church is going to be. But can I encourage us today?

Our goal is not to get all of our preferences. I don't know if you know this. As a pastor at Tabernacle, not everything that happens happens the way that I want it to.

Not everything in the church, not every song is one that I love and that is my favorite thing to listen to. Not every time that any activity goes on at the church is that everything that I would do, because the goal isn't what is Bryon's wants.

The goal isn't follow what Bryon says. The goal is what the Spirit has for us. So what does the Spirit want for us?

Is that some ethereal thing? No, no, no. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.

His goal is to convict the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment. He is the one that speaks of Christ and draws attention and glory to Him through the church. That's our goal.

That's our purpose. Are we focusing on that when it comes to how we think about the church, how we think about serving? Are we thinking through the lens of our wants and our desires and our preferences?

Or are we looking at it through a spiritual lens?

As we're talking about two kingdoms, we can have one kingdom view that says all of the trappings, all of the stuff, maybe appearances and activities and programs, this is all what really makes a great church.

If we're going to have God's kingdom in mind, then our individuality has to be sacrificed on the altar of what does God have. And what God has is inward change. What God has is people reaching people.

So many of us would like the very programmatic approach to the Christian life.

It's a lot easier to just say, okay, we'll get a dynamic preacher, we'll get the best praise band, we'll get this or that, we'll get a fancy new website, we'll renovate or tear down all of this stuff, and we'll build a gigantic new sanctuary, and

that'll bring people in. And the truth is, that's not the way that God works. God works through people.

And as we follow, as we attempt to reach people, there may be times where we say, okay, this thing would help us to not put up additional barriers to the gospel.

Or this thing, you know, if we put a welcome tent outside, it might help people to be able to see, where is Tabernacle Baptist Church? I'm just seeing a school, and I'm not really seeing where I need to go.

Maybe there might be some outside thing that would help with people, but programs. Things in the church are there to serve people. People aren't there to serve programs.

So we must sacrifice our individuality to view God's kingdom. We have the same spirit. We can encourage one another.

We have the same future, the same process of sanctification, the same goal, and the same standing. You are not more right with God because of your perceived righteousness than any other believer.

That's a convicting thought to me, because all of us want to justify ourselves and look down on everyone else. We want to say, I'm really following the Lord real good, and everyone else, they just need to kind of get their act together.

Or sometimes we say, okay, I'm just great with the Lord, and that person, maybe they're a little too judgy, they're a little too holier than thou. All of us are level at the foot of the cross.

That his righteousness is the only righteousness that counts. So when we interact with other believers, we don't come in a sense of, I'm great and you're, or I'm just nice and chill and you're just too judgy. No, no, no.

We ought to have a heart of encouragement for one another that I can learn from any other believer. I can hear God's voice speaking to me through his Spirit through any other believer.

Like I mentioned last week, it might be that God's saying, no, you need patience or you need love because you're not being patient or loving that person. It might be that, but God is still speaking to us. We have the same spirit.

We can encourage each other if we are united. We can have direction together. So this is one accord, one mind, one agreement.

The goal of the church is set by God's kingdom and his work. If we are focused on that, we will see that the church is not a social club that caters to our every whim.

It is not primarily a vehicle for social benevolence, and it is not a shrine to past accomplishments. If we have one accord, one agreement about what the church is, it is set by God's kingdom and his work.

Does the Bible say that this is what we ought to do? Then we're doing it. If the Bible doesn't say that that's what we're supposed to do, then we're not going to do it unless it falls in line with Scripture.

How could we possibly be unified on the mission of the church and how to accomplish that? By giving up our individual wants and preferences, our selfishness, and needing to get something from others in the church, and by focusing on His kingdom.

His kingdom is made of people looking like Jesus in their actions and words and bringing more and more people into relationship with God. That's what His kingdom looks like. Is that our pursuit?

Are we having a direction that says, I want to act and talk and think more like Jesus, and I want to bring other people along in the adventure?

Is that how I'm living my life, or am I living my life based on, I think we should do this or be this or have this? Which one is reflective of our thoughts and our actions?

Not only can we be established together and encouraged together, and not only can we have direction together, but we can see his victory together. We can see this in verse 27 where he says, contending together for the faith of the gospel.

That phrase, contending together, it's a wrestling term, talking about a team working together against a common enemy in the match.

Far too often, we're obsessed with fighting one another over preferences and selfish demands, and we're not focused on our true enemy. Your enemy is not the person that sat in your chair.

Your enemy is not the person that forgot to invite you to the church chili cookout. Your enemy is not the little kid that does something you don't like, or the musician who didn't select all of your favorite tunes.

Your enemy is Satan, and his weapons, getting you to disobey God by convincing you that God's way, his kingdom, is too difficult. Think of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. Wait till your time of fasting is over to eat.

You'll be too hungry. You're dead by then. Demand God does what you want when you want it, and make these stones bread.

Wait and allow people to find out you're the Messiah through your teaching? Too long and arduous. Simply throw yourself off the temple pinnacle, and everyone will see and know who you are.

Who cares if God didn't tell you to do it, and that it would be tempting him? The third temptation, suffer and die for the sins of the world? That would be awful.

Simply worship me, and I'll give the nations right over to you. That is our enemy, the one who wants us to circumvent the will of God. That would say, if I treat people the way that God wants me to treat people, man, I might be run over sometimes.

If I want to love people the way that God loves me, and the way that God wants me to love people, I might have to go through some things, or participate in some things that I don't want to on my own. Can I encourage you?

We ought to contend together, not against each other, contending together for the faith of the gospel. That together we would invite each other to help in evangelism.

You'd invite someone over to your house, and maybe you might invite along John Cooney as well. And you'd say, all right, all of us are going to get together, we're going to have dinner. I'm going to share the gospel with this coworker.

I'm going to share the gospel with this family member, and I'm bringing along backup. Paul says, I want to hear that you all are contending together for the faith of the gospel. Fight Satan by fighting alongside your brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Stop fighting your teammates. My sisters and my brother, we would play a game. Many of you might be familiar with Mario.

And in one of the versions of Mario, you can have all four of you are on a team, and the worst thing in the world would be when your teammate would grab you and throw you off a cliff.

And too often, that's how we interact with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We say, all right, you're gone. And that ought not to be our way.

How do we fight? How do we contend together? We pray.

We praise. We dive into the word, and we have accountability with one another, that we encourage each other in our walks. When we fail, we don't just keep it bottled up.

We open up James 5, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you will be healed. This week, will you sacrifice your isolation and self-sufficiency to live with His citizens? God's kingdom matters more than our desires.

It matters more than our individuality. His kingdom matters more than this world's kingdom.

He says this in verse number 28, we are to do all of these things to have that one spirit, one mind striving together, contending together for the faith of the gospel, not being frightened in any way by your opponents.

This is a sign of destruction for them, but of your salvation, and this is from God. This world's kingdom has lots of fears towards us.

Hebrews chapter 2 says this, Jesus shared in these sufferings, these temptations, these trials, so that through his death, he might destroy the one holding the power of death, that is the devil, and so that he would free those who were held in

slavery all their lives by the fear of death. As you interact with people this week, realize that this world has some threats. You could die, but for the Christian, death is no longer that great looming evil that we fear will overtake us.

It is the doorway into everlasting life. Jesus said this way in Luke 12, I say to you, my friends, don't fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing.

Now through Christ, even death itself, the worst thing that this life could possibly bring us is the doorway we walk through in order to meet Jesus. It's the doorway we walk through to get to our everlasting kingdom.

So the fear of this world is empty. If everything tomorrow goes crazy, we have World War III, and there's atom bombs everywhere, the worst possible thing that can happen to you is you get to meet Jesus.

So if that's the worst that this world can throw at us, that we get to meet Jesus, we have nothing to fear. We live our life free from the fear of death, free from the power of Satan.

Revelation 12 says this, the great dragon was thrown out, that ancient serpent who was called the devil, and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world, he was thrown to earth and his angels with him.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, he has been

thrown down. They conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not love their lives to the point of death.

Here, Paul's not writing this from, you know, where I'm standing, where it's cushy, and I can say all of these things, and none of you are going to leave this place and be in fear of dying because you are a Christian.

For the Philippian believers, from the very first times that they met Paul, he was beaten and imprisoned because of preaching the gospel. For these people, death was a legitimate possibility.

But Paul here is encouraging them, this world's fear that it tries to give you is empty. You have nothing to fear. But not only is their fear empty, their destruction is eminent.

You can see there in verse number 28, this is a sign of destruction for them. You not being scared by those who are opposed to Christ, the fact that you're not scared of that.

Today, it might look more like ostracization, that if you take a stand for Christ lovingly in the Spirit, if you take a stand for Christ, people might say, I don't want to be around that person. They're too religious.

Our lack of fear of being shamed or ostracized for Christ, for these believers, if they did not have fear of death, it was a sign to those opposed to Christ, oh, this is real.

There's one of my best friends, he's got a family member that is attempting to say, okay, if you don't approve of this action and of this lifestyle entirely, then you don't love me.

And what I encouraged him with a couple days ago was, continue to stand firm, because if he sees Jesus is so real and so alive and that Jesus is more powerful than the shame that would come from that person towards you, if they see Jesus is bigger

than all of that, it might minister to them, it might show them Jesus is real, and He's so real, He's more powerful than anything this world can throw at you. But the destruction of the wicked is eminent.

Revelation 21 says this, the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. This life is not the end.

And while there are wonderful things in store for those that believe in Christ, for those that do not believe in Christ, that reject salvation, reject a relationship with God offered through Jesus, hell is a very real place.

Can I encourage you this week, if you are a citizen of heaven, be absolutely unhappy with a lethargy that would say, I am good. Hope you guys figure it out. No, no, no.

Actively be reaching out to other people. If you believe what Jesus says, that there is a kingdom of righteousness, a kingdom coming in which there is life, then help pull people from the kingdom of death. I know at times it may seem daunting.

You might say, okay, I've known this person for 15 years. I've never mentioned Jesus. If I mention it now, it'll be weird.

It might be, but it's worth it. The destruction of the wicked is eminent. So call them to faith in Christ.

Let them know you don't have to, you don't have to do a bunch of works. You don't have to do a bunch of things in order for God to make you new. Instead, He has done all of the work and now invites you freely into the kingdom.

Your citizenship cost has already been paid for. He took the class. He learned the Constitution of it.

He knows all of it, and He's just inviting you to walk in the door. Will you this week care about others, invite them to faith in Christ? Will you witness to others faithfully knowing that one day there will be judgment for sin?

Maybe if you're in this room today and you don't know Christ, you do not know Him as your Savior. Can I challenge you? Get that settled.

I would love to talk with you. Pastor Ron would love to talk with you. If you have a family member here, I know they would love to show you from the Bible how you can know that you have a relationship with God, that you have citizenship in heaven.

Don't put that off. But not only for this world's kingdom is their fear empty, their destruction imminent, his rescue is certain. There in the end of verse number 28, a sign of our salvation and this is from God.

I love Romans 10. Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Romans chapter 8, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, that when he comes again or if we die, we can know that he will rescue us, that we will no longer struggle with sickness and sadness and the harms of this life.

We won't struggle with sin anymore. Instead, we will be made completely whole.

First Peter 2, conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits. God will come again. Are you preparing for that day?

First Peter 5, 10, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, establish, strengthen and support you after you have suffered a little while.

Then lastly this morning, briefly, God's kingdom matters more than our comfort. It matters more than our desires, how we would naturally live our life with our sin and our ways. It will never bring us closer to God.

It will never build God's kingdom. So God's kingdom matters more than our desires. It matters more than our individuality that we weren't saved to just do things by ourselves.

We're called to do things with those in our church, with those in God's family. God's kingdom matters more than this world.

So we can ignore the threats, the fears, the shames that this world would attempt to bring because we know whose kingdom really matters. And then lastly, God's kingdom matters more than our comfort here in verses 29 and 30.

For it has been granted to you on Christ's behalf not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for Him, since you are engaged in the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I have. God's kingdom matters more than our comfort.

We want a cushy religion that never asks anything of us. We want a religion in which the God will make sure that we never have a flat tire and that we never argue with a spouse or with a child or with a coworker.

We want a God that will give us everything that we want. But that's not how he lived his life while he was here on earth. That's not the life he calls us to.

We can see that our justification came through his suffering. That Jesus didn't come in order to be comfortable. He came through incredible suffering.

Just a few weeks ago when we observed the Lord's table together, read through Isaiah 53 and through Psalm 22 that detailed Jesus' suffering for sin on our behalf. That he was whipped and beaten. He was hit.

He was spit on. He was crucified. How can we expect that God will then give us just a bed of roses throughout all of our life if Jesus' life, our justification that he bought salvation for us through suffering?

Our sanctification comes through suffering. That it's a little bit like if you have a master craftsman that might make Michelangelo making the statue of David out of marble. That we want to look like King David.

We want to look like that beautiful marble, but we don't want the constant chipping away that God does at our life. That he shows us, here's something that you're holding onto over me. Here's a sin that you have been holding onto.

Here's a relationship that you should not have or that needs to be removed from your life so that I can bring maybe this other person into your life that you can share Christ with and show Christ to.

There's no telling how God might use our sufferings. There's just a guarantee that there will be sufferings. So our heart in it can either be, suffering says, oh, God's not there.

God doesn't care about me. Or sufferings can tell us, yes, God does see me. God does care about me.

And he's treating me like he treated Jesus. He says there in verse number 29, it's been granted to you on Christ's behalf, not only to believe on him, it's a wonderful thing to be given the gift of salvation, correct? Amen.

How Scripture talks about it, it's also an incredible privilege to be able to suffer for Christ. We don't think about it that way. We want the great gift of salvation and the great gift of no suffering.

But since when God suffers, it results in salvation in life for others, He calls us to partake in that same thing ourselves. That when Jesus suffered, when He bled, when He died, salvation was bought for every person.

And when we suffer for Christ, it can either point people to Jesus, it can show them that He is real, that He is active and alive in us. So we ought to view even suffering itself as the method by which our sanctification happens.

No one likes growing pains, but I think of some taller people in the room. Dave is pretty tall. I'm sure it wasn't comfortable to go through growing pains, but now sitting at, what are you, six?

Five, six? Not that tall. All right, however tall you are, but I'm pretty sure you're happy.

Oh yeah, nice, tall guy. None of us enjoy the process of suffering, but what God builds in us at the end of it is something that is glorifying to Jesus. So our justification came through his suffering.

Our sanctification comes through suffering, that we see our need of him in our sin and in our sorrow. We call on him, and that builds sanctification, and our glorification will come at the end of suffering. That your suffering is not forever.

If you're going through deep health valleys, it is not forever. There will come a day when God will make everything new. If you are going through deep relationship hurts, it's not forever.

If you're going through trials of maybe a job loss, it's not forever. The sufferings of this life, Paul would say, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. God has a good plan.

His kingdom will come, and when it comes, it will erase all of our sorrows and all of our struggles. Embrace them right now, because it makes us look more like citizens of His kingdom. But they aren't forever, so we can have faith in that.

Will you embrace discomfort and suffering as proof that you're His representative? If you're suffering, it means God sees you and He is growing you to look more like Jesus.

Today, we're called to live our life as though only God's kingdom matters, behaving, living like citizens of heaven. Can I ask you this morning, have you turned to Christ as your king personally? If you haven't, please, talk to me after the service.

I'll be standing right where Gary is, back there on that back wall. You can talk to Pastor Ron, talk to someone I would love to share with you from Scripture, how you can know that you're on your way to heaven.

If you're going to live your life as though only God's kingdom matters, will you sacrifice what you want to do to follow what your king commands? That might mean saying no to something you really want to do.

It might mean saying no to something that you've said yes to for a very long time. But will you sacrifice what you want to do to follow what your king commands? Will you sacrifice your isolation and self-sufficiency to live life with his citizens?

Will you invite others to become part of the kingdom? And will you embrace discomfort and suffering as proof that you're his representative, his ambassador, that as he suffered, when we suffer, we look like Jesus?

Will you embrace that role, that gift that he has given? Today we get to choose.

Will we have his kingdom come on earth through us, as it is in heaven, or are we going to live lives that say, this world's kingdom, my kingdom, is what I'm going to live for? Thank you.