Philippians 3:17-4:1, May 22

Introduction

How easy do you really think it is to get to know God and how He wants us to live?

Are we imitating people worth imitating? Do we intentionally read about and/or spend time with spiritually mature people who will challenge and grow us?

Role Models

How much of who you are do you think you learned in a class and how much of your identity is simple something you caught from being around someone else?

Remember the story of Lot, the cousin of Abraham? Abraham was blessed by God and led to a new land. His cousin Lot went with him. Upon arriving in the land Lot chose to live in a fertile, populated area and left the hill country to Abraham.

And yet what happened with Lot?

After years living in and around Soddom and Gomorrah he and his family were corrupted by the sin around them. In fact Lot and his two daughters only barely escaped God’s judgment on an entire community. They went from being upstanding members of a community to living in a cave.

Remember what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians?

1 Corinthians 15:33 ESV

33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

The reality is life change isn’t formed by willpower and superhuman strength. It’s built in hundreds of little choices, habits and movements.

Proverbs highlights the positive and negative truth here:

Proverbs 13:20 ESV

20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

That’s why people who want to beat an addiction need to surround themselves with other people fighting addiction. They need to catch the habits of recovery as much as they need to make the choices of recovery.

Paul sets the example to follow

The Bible gives us many stories of real people so we have examples we can catch.

Philippians 3:17 ESV

17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

Paul isn’t going back on what he said earlier when he said to count all his good deeds as worthless. Instead Paul wants the church to follow Paul’s example in struggling to imitate Jesus.

1 Corinthians 11:1 ESV

1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Paul is asking them to follow Him as he follows Christ.

Human role models will always have flaws.

Even the most godly Father will have sinful habits we shouldn’t imitate.

Great Christians from the past were slave-holders, had terrible marriages, or other struggles we didn’t even know about.

We must remember that Christianity has always been a faith of sinful people learning to imitate Jesus.

We are a hospital for sinners....not just a home for saints.

What we must look for in people we imitate is,

“Are they trying to imitate Christ?”

If they are we need to study their lives and try to learn from them.

Who do you need to spend more time with to catch how they are living out their faith well?

Biographies

Christian movies

Godly men and women further along in their faith than you.

An ungodly example

Philippians 3:18–19 ESV

18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

Paul was passionate about the cross of Jesus!

Paul took heresy seriously. He was passionately opposed to beliefs that pushed that you could be saved by anything but the cross. He was opposed to people who demeaned and lessoned what Jesus did on the cross.

How do we relate to the cross of Christ?

The cross saved us.

The cross gives us hope for tomorrow.

The cross represents the greatest sacrifice ever.

The cross represents God dealing with the sins of the world.

How do many in the world live?

And yet

for many their god is their belly,

Opening Up Philippians Their God

Instead of controlling their appetites they allow their appetites to control them.

they glory in their shame with their minds set on earthly things.

Opening Up Philippians Their Glory

Their moral values are so topsy-turvy and confused, they actually go around boasting of things they ought to be ashamed of!

In short, they act like God is dead.

In today’s world drag queens are celebrated as prom queens.

Boys are celebrated for competing in women’s sports.

Pride celebrations around the country encourage and celebrate any sort of sexual relationships.

Pornography is seen as normal throughout our culture despite wrecking devestation.

All sorts of actions where people serve their desires and glory in their shame are celebrated publically today.

How do we respond to this world?

Do we sit in our homes complaining about the sin of the world.

Do we hang out at coffee shops wishing for the good ole days when sinners stayed hidden.

No, we need to respond with Christian truth.

We believe in a God who created the world and gets to decide write and wrong. This same God created all humankind for loving relationship with Him!

We believe that our God will judge sin and those who embrace sin with destruction some day. The end of sin is destruction in this world or the world to come.

We pursue holiness and Christlike Character with everything we have.

Hebrews 12:1 ESV

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

We love God and love our neighbor

Matthew 22:37 ESV

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Matthew 22:38 ESV

38 This is the great and first commandment.

Matthew 22:39 ESV

39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

We pray

Philippians 4:6 ESV

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Our Citizenship and Saviour

Philippians 3:20 ESV

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

We belong to heaven.

We have a king there who will watch over us.

We have a different home.

Travel to Israel and other eastern countries....no place like coming home.

Philippians 3:20–21 ESV

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Jesus will return!

Jesus will transform us to finally be like him.

The bodies of the dead will be resurrected, transformed and reunited.

The power that Jesus displays will subdue all things to Him on that day.

There is hope.

We are called to live as people with a different passport. We should see the world differently from everyone around.

Conclusion

Stand firm

Philippians 4:1 ESV

1 Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

Learn from the stories of Godly men and women and imitate them.

Respond to the world with Christian truth in love.

Remember the destruction of sin.

Live as Citizens of Heaven.

Stand firm.