Gospel-Centered Living

Good morning, everyone! Whether you're here with us in the room or joining online—listening live or later—I am truly glad you're here. Leaf River Baptist church exist to Know Christ, Grow in faith, and to Go make Him known.

Hey, if you’ve got kids with you this morning—now’s a great time for them to head to class. We’ve got an amazing team ready to welcome them and help them know Jesus in a way that makes sense to them.

Now everyone else, it’s time to settle in and get comfortable and open up to Philippians chapter 2. We are continuing in our series called Partners in the Gospel. We’re going to be in Philippians 2 again, so you can go ahead and turn there and get ready to seek the Lord through his word.

So as we consider this text I want to just briefly remind you where we are. We are in Philippi, which is a Roman colony in the middle of Macedonia. These are people that are proud Romans and they are used to seeking status and honor. These were a proud and patriotic group of people.

Paul had met this group of Christians when he went there and preached the Gospel. Paul was run out of town and stoned when he sent a demon away from a girl who was being used to make money for her owners. So they were upset with him.

Now he’s in Rome under house arrest and facing a potential death penalty for preaching the Gospel.

Paul writes this letter to them because he has heard that the church is facing external and internal pressure. Specifically it seems that unity is something they are struggling with.

Now what’s important to know is that Paul is not simply teaching some deep abstrant theology class to the Christians in Philippi. Paul is sharing how gospel partnerships survive the pressures and stresses of the world.

Now, there is a picture that Paul is going to paint in a minute and I want to give you a visual this morning.

In the Old Testament, a drink offering was poured on top of the sacrificial meat offering that was given. This offering was a costly wine poured out completely before the Lord. Not a drop kept back. Not measured. Fully given. And once it was poured—it was gone.

That was worship.

Now listen to Paul—

Philippians 2:17 ESV

17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

Paul is saying: “That’s my life.—My life is being emptied out—completely—for the sake of your faith.”

Let’s think about the picture that we saw last week. Last week we saw that Christ was humbled to the point of becoming man, not removing his divinity, but releasing his grasp and veiling his glory. He was “emptied” fully in obedience to the point of death on a cross. This was the pouring out of Christ. Then was the exaltation of Christ as the Father vindicated the Son placing him at the right hand in the heavenly places.

So that is where we are picking up today—let’s go ahead and read the whole section we are looking at today so we can get a full context of what is happening here.

Philippians 2:12–18 ESV

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Today we have an opportunity to learn from Paul and truly understand what Gospel-Centered living displays to the world around us…

First of all…

Gospel-Centered Living Displays My Salvation 

This is a pretty big claim I think—and also potentially pretty informative we are are willing to be honest with ourselves.

Let’s read this again and see Paul’s call to active obedience, remembering that he is writing as a spiritual father who may soon die. He is writing to a group of people that he knows may be the last thing he is able to say to them. So, let’s look at…

Philippians 2:12–13 ESV

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Right off the bat we need to understand why that word, “therefore” is there. I’ve heard pastors and professors say whenever you see the word, “therefore”, you need to look and see what it is “there for”. So, that’s the first thing we need to recognize. This section immediately coming after the humiliation and exaltation of Christ, tells us that our obedience is rooted in Christ’s obedience that we just saw. The way I live my life—shows others who Christ is.

Then Paul tells them to “work out” their own salvation. Again, once might say that this is a legalist argument as to why we should obey the Lord. However, what is really interesting here is that the Greek here implies that this “working out” is actually bringing to completion. In other words, this is not saying that you need to work to receive your salvation. This is actually saying that the work we do shows others the salvation we have already recieved.

This is really powerful and I want you to write this down, ok.

God’s work within motivates my obedience without

In other words…Paul is calling the Christians in Philippi to live and behave as if they are saved—because they are.

Even the idea of fear and trembling is written to encourage, not condemn or terrify. Rom.8:1 tells us that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Paul is not telling Romans there is no condemnation while telling the Philippians that they need to fear being condemned. What he is expressing is that the Christian life is not a casual club to join…that there is a seriousness around this salvation that they are holding.

You see, true obedience doesn’t come from fear, but from reverence to God. That means our hearts, when we realize what Christ has fully done for us, fills up with desire to serve him more.

The reality is that God is working inside of you. God is changing you from the inside out…You may not realize it, but it’s happening. I’ve been talking to some folks recently and there is something amazing that’s happening to more than one person. They have been finding themselves go through various hardships and I have been told more than one time lately…”It’s amazing, my desire isn’t anger like it used to be.” Folks…that’s God’s working inside this church.

Here’s the deal—The truth Paul shows us is this:

God works in us before He works through us

This applies to us individually, but also corporately. You work…you serve…you sacrifice, all because he did that for you personally…and if he hasn’t, then let me invite you today to allow him into your life so that you can experience that.

So while Rome was teaching self-sufficiency and self-glorification—Paul is teaching dependance on Jesus, and glorifying God.

Now Paul is going to move from the inner work of God to the outward witness of the church.

Gospel-Centered Living Displays My Sanctification 

Let’s go ahead and re-read this next sentence that Paul wrote to the church in Philippi.

Philippians 2:14–16 ESV

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Paul’s telling the Christians in Philippi, as they are struggling with unity, to stop grumbling—Stop complaining about what God is calling them to do. Paul tells them to do this as an offering to the Lord.

Paul is telling them this for two reasons. First there is a need to edify the church—there is also a need to stand out to world.

How do we…

Edify the church

Let me tell you something about that grumbling or complaining—Grumbling is functional unbelief. That means when you are grumbling to God about how much he doesn’t understand or you don’t deserve this, you are actually telling God that you are greater that he is and you don’t believe he is God over all.

When we start doing this as a church, then we start to weaken our own resolve to promote the Gospel. Listen, we’ve seen the ast few weeks that unity does not mean uniformity…However, at some point there must be unity as a church where we champion the message of the Gospel together. There’s no internal bickering about some decision that you may not agree with specifically.

The thing is that when we have internal division that destroys our external witness. I can say that because I’ve seen it. I’ve been in churches that literally argued about practically everything.

I’ve been in monthly business meetings that lasted hours and accomplished nothing except that everyone left upset and on different sides of the issue. Christians that do that…Churches that do that…they are not advancing the Gospel because they are full of people that are all fighting for their way of doing things, and their way alone.

Listen, if you find yourself constantly at odds with other people within the church about the mission of the Gospel, then you better look at your heart and remove the pride inside of you. You’re concern is yourself and your worship—not someone else’s.

Paul is calling out individualistic pride over faithful humbleness to the Lord in order to edify the church as a whole.

We’re also called to…

Stand out in the world

Just like grumbling and disputing or arguing tears down the church…it covers the light of Christ in the community. I’ve talked about how we are living in a dark culture.

We are living in a culture, much like the Philippians, that only cares about themselves and focuses on things like “self-care” instead of relying on Christ. We have taken spiritual problems and frequently give them a scary name and give pills to curb that feeling or behavior.

In the midst of that culture we are called to be the light and point people to Christ, who is the only hope. Yet we can’t do that if we are constantly complaining or fighting with each other about what God has very clearly called us to do.

We live, as Paul pointed out, in a crooked generation and we are called to be blameless and pure. In the midst of the darkness of the culture—we are called to be the light.

The darker the culture, the brighter the church should appear. Remember Paul is writing to Christians who are living in Philipp that has a deep loyalty to Caesar. Paul is saying that Christians should be declaring “Jesus is Lord!” Paul is telling them to preach a counter-cultural message that is frankly dangerous where they are. In the face of that…unity is not optional—it’s survival.

Leaf River Baptist Church exists in a culture that celebrates sin more than anything else. The culture is afraid of Satanic and demonic teachings like Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Progressive Christianity, and even some of the local cults right here in Ogle County—yet we are called to shine the light upon that darkness. Let me rephrase that…you are called to shine the light!

That unity that shines the light enables you to be generous with each other, and to advance the gospel around you through things like the Front Porch and funding a Family Pastor. You do that because we are grateful for what God has saved you from and you want others to experience that same grace.

But shining isn’t just about behavior—its about sacrifice. Paul shows us that…

Gospel-Centered Living Demonstrates My Faithful Sacrifice

Listen to how Paul describes his own life here. Not as a preserved life, but as a life poured out.

Philippians 2:17–18 ESV

17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

I love these verses! I love them because here we see Pauls heart—and that shines a light on our own hearts.

Remember earlier we talked about a drink offering and what that was. Paul is expressing that his life is emptied out in service to the gospel’s mission…He is bringing their attention to the selfless act of sacrifice of Christ, even up to death. This is a final act of worship where nothing is held back

Paul’s Personal Reality

Remember Paul is in prison here facing death…To Paul this is no metaphor—this is an imminent reality.

Paul is pointing out that their faith is the primary offering being presented to God. And he says that his own life is being poured out on top of that—like a drink offering—spent in service of their growth in Christ.

In other words, Paul doesn’t see himself as the center of the sacrifice—he sees himself as being poured out for the sake of theirs.

That’s a radical way to live—essentially, “My life exists to strengthen your faith—even if it costs me everything.”

Paul gives them his very real example and tells them that this is what it looks like to pour out your life as a drink offering. Paul instructs them to not hold anything back…and uses his own situation as an example of giving everything to the Lord and holding nothing back.

What really cool about that is how that willing sacrifice that Paul tells about truly bring him joy! Then he invites them to experience the same…

Joy in Sacrifice

This is of course an insane thing to think about…I mean who claims to have joy as they are sacrificing of themselves. This is the type of thing that impacts the world outside of the church. You see, when the lost see you sacrificing for others, and see that you’re excited to do it…well they want to know what that’s about.

I’ve been on mission trips in my younger years and I have had countless people asking me why I was there helping to build them a house, or making repairs for them and wasn’t charging them anything.

You see, something radical happens. Christians are called to sacrifice for others…to suffer for others…to give to others all for the glory of the Lord. We do this, not because we want to get something back…but because we want to give of ourselves in the effort of advancing the Gospel to a lost and dying world all around us.

The Gospel literally redefines what joy is—and then we are caleld to share that joy with everyone.

As a church what is amazing about connecting on Sunday is that we get to rejoice together at what God has been doing. We get to share and encourage each other in sacrifice for the faith of each other and those outside the walls of this place.

We get to sacrifice our time as we come and serve each other here—our talents as we employ the skills God has given us to be able to advance the Gospel both inside and outside of these walls—our resources as we join together to fund the work of God in this place and around the world.

A generous church is not a church that simply supplies financial resources…No, a generous church is a church that gives itself.

From that we are able to experience unity as beleivers, we let go of our preferences to strengthen our unity. We pour out our lives as a sacrifice to the Lord—not holding back…not measured…not partially given, but fully offered to the glory of Christ.

So what does that look like practically for us…right here, right now?

Together we reject passive Christianity and embrace a full and complete surrender.

Together we reject a divided Christianity and embrace a full unity. Not uniformity…unity that only comes from the Gospel.

Together we embrace sacrificial, joyful obedience to the Lord and the Lord alone.

Philippians 2:5–11 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus was poured out first. He obeyed perfectly. He gave everything.

And now—we don’t create this life—we reflect Him with our lives.

So the question is not, “How little can I give?” But, “What would it look like for my whole life to belong to Christ?” All of my time—All of my talent—All of my treasures—All…for the glory of God.

This morning…Will you be a consumer of God’s grace—or participate in this gospel partnership moving forward?

Let’s pray