Living a life worthy of the Gospel
Notes
Transcript
Introduction : Living a life worthy of the Gospel
Good morning everyone. My name is Pastor Mark and I am one of the pastor’s around here. Before I get started I want to set a few expectations for us.
First, if you were around Hingepoint Church 14 years ago and heard me preach. And are excited to see me up here because the last time you saw me I only preached for 14 minutes. Today I'm going a little longer.
Second, If you only get one thing out of the sermon today, let it be this. We serve an awesome God.
For the last year the Lord has been using this phrase around me. “Gospel Culture.” It all started with this podcast that Pastor Daniel listened to called “Your Not Crazy, Gospel sanity for young Pastors.”
The timing of this podcast was God ordained I believe. If I think back to what was happening I sort of cringe. We were coming off of one of the toughest seasons our society had experienced in generations. Our Senior Pastor had just resigned. Our Elders were under attack. Our Pastors were under attack. Our Staff were under attack. And I felt I was a young pastor that was crazy for thinking about sticking around.
So I started listening to the podcast that was going to tell me I wasn’t crazy. I started hearing topics like what is Gospel Culture. What does the Bible say about Gospel Culture. Staying Honest, and showing honor. Showing Gentleness and Grace. And I started feeling rejuvenated. I could feel my soul longing for this gospel culture in all aspects of my life.
The leadership, starting with the Elders, started to listen to this Podcast. And during this time of change and struggle we began to get grounded in why we are here. The good news of the Gospel and living a life worthy of the Gospel. The culture in our Elder meetings started changing. The culture on staff started changing. And I found joy in a time and place that I was certain I would never find.
Through this past year of asking God what he was doing he showed me how to live, he showed me how to think, and he showed me what was important. Today I want to share a little of what i have learned.
Today I’m going to be talking about Gospel Culture. And the three aspects you have to know.
The Gospel Call
Gospel Living
The Ultimate Example
Turn in your Bibles to Philippians Chapter 2. As you are making your way there let me give you a little background. Paul is writing this letter from prison. He is writing this letter to the church of Philippi.
Philippi is a Roman colony and many of the people of Philippi are retired soldiers who recieved their citizenship by serving in the military. They knew exactly the cost of citizenship.
Knowing this Paul writes to them in familiar terms. I’m going to start reading a small portion of Chapter one to get us started.
The Gospel Call
Phil 1:27
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1
27 Just one thing: As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ. 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,
I started here in vs 27 where Paul highlights the call for every believer. To live a life worthy of the Gospel. To live a life worthy of the sacrifice Christ gave on the cross.
Hear me, Christian! It doesn’t matter where you grew up, what church you got saved in, where you came from, who you voted for, how much money you make or how good you think you have been. The BIBLE says that you and I and EVERY Christian are united under a single goal that should define and describe the very fabric of our life! To CONTEND TOGETHER for the faith of the Gospel!!! Does this make sense to you? Do you understand why this is such a big deal?
We’re going to start at 2:1 and spend a few moments today in just a handful of verses that explained to me, and I believe will explain to YOU, HOW we go about doing this. So today is about the “HOW.” Verse 27 that I just read to you is about the “WHY.” I’m making the assumption today that you already agree with the “WHY!”
Gospel Thinking Phil 2:1-2
If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
Paul is telling the Philippians here because they are united with Christ, believers are members of his body. We have special bonds to one another due to our relationship with Christ. Our attitudes toward one another are important.
Look at how Paul creates a dependency here: If there is (5 things he asks you are true)
Encouragement in Christ
Consolation in love
Fellowship of the Spirit
Affection
Mercy
If these are true things ABOUT JESUS, THEN….YOU and I are going to be FORCED to live life differently.
HOW DIFFERENTLY? Well the very truth of these 5 things (listed above) will lead us to live in them together and creates a Gospel CULTURE
Culture is the material traits for a group. The customary beliefs, social forms, the way of life For Christians, Paul is telling the Philippians if you identify with these aspects of being a believer then we have a specific culture that we belong to. This is the expected way of living. Going back to Phil 1:27, and the call for all believers, As citizens of Heaven, we are to live our life worthy of the Gospel. How do we do that?
Gospel Culture
Paul is instructing his readers to make my joy complete in practical responses with the following outlook toward one another:
Being like-minded
This doesn’t mean we all have the same opinions, or we have the same preferences, or even the same spiritual gifts. God created us differently. We are all apart of the same body but we do different jobs/functions in the body.
So how are we to be like-minded? Our mind is focused on what Jesus wants for his body of believers. Not what Peggy wants or what Mark wants, but what does God want. In all aspects we are looking towards Gods Kingdom.
When our Executive Pastors meet. Pastor Steve, Pastor Daniel, and myself. We all have different thoughts, skills, and opinions. We all are very competent but often times we see situations very differently.
I bet you can imagine what those conversations can look like. The inventor Pastor Daniel, the Missions Evangelist Pastor Steve, and the Problem finder Pastor Mark. And thirty years dividing Steve from Daniel and I.
We could choose to fight over our differences. Or choose to lower ourselves and lift each other up to better see what God is doing. You see when the body comes together we can better understand what God is doing because we have different perspectives to discern.
Having the same love
What is love? I found an article where 53 people described love in Exactly 5 words. Here are some of the answers.
Thinking as “we” not “me”
Spooning on a Sunday morning
Tackling the world as two
Wiping away his eye crust
When commitment is a privilege
Some nice things, but let’s turn to the authority!
“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Gospel love is selfless. The opposite of this is Selfishness. Humility does not mean putting ourselves down but rather lifting others up.
When the body of believers start loving each other like Christ loves them a change starts to take place. Trust in one another starts to grow. Our vulnerability with others grows. We start to let others into our lives without the worry we might get hurt by others because we have the same love for each other.
We are able to think the best in others rather than remembering the worst. Why because the best in them is Jesus just like Jesus in you.
Everyone around you start to feel important. People feel like they belong. Because they are and they do. There is something beautiful that happens when gospel love surrounds people. Something that is irritable.
Being one in spirit and purpose
The Greek word here is “kiononia” In fellowship or in partnership. Not the kind of fellowship where we occasionally have a meal together. More like the fellowship in a good marriage. An unbreakable bond.
In this case in fellowship with the Spirit. Is the Holy Spirit guiding you in your daily walk?
When we are silent and rely on the spirits direction and prompting we can’t help but be in tune to the Gospel.
Paul is presenting these sentiments as being a part of the normal Christians life. Being united in Christ, we are to think what is the Lords will for his body of believers. We are to work together in gospel love with the help from the Holy Spirit.
One of the reasons I started finding joy during this past year is because the Elders started putting aside the topics, thoughts, and idea’s that cause disagreements and division and we began thinking with one mind, focused God’s will for his church and our unity began to grow strong. Even though the Elders are made up of different generations, different backgrounds, I would even say different cultures. When we started to focus on being like-minded, having the same love, and working with the Holy spirit for the same purpose. Once we started focusing on Fellowship “kiononia” with each other and with the Holy spirit something special started to happen. The Gospel started to permeate through us. The Leadership of Resurrection Church was different, we were all aligned with Gospel thinking.
After Paul gives the positive ways believers are to behave toward one another, he gives the negatives to avoid. Selfish ambition and vain conceit have no place in the Christian life. Our goal is unity in love. When we see selfish ambition or vain conceit we see pride, not love. Instead, humility is to characterize the Christian. We are not to exalt ourselves above others.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.
Do nothing out of Selfish ambition or Conceit. Self seeking or Not shifting your gaze to higher things. We we look at circumstances around us and think “What am I getting out of this.” or “I could do that better” The theme here is all about “I.”
But in Humility. This term expresses humility as a quality that stands in contrast to pride or arrogance. Humility is the filter we look through at the world around us. We act with humility to imitate the humility of Christ.
Considers others as more important than yourselves. We have to reprioritize our thinking. God first, others second, and ourselves last.
If gospel love is selfless. The opposite of this is Selfishness. Humility does not mean putting ourselves down but rather lifting others up.
We are born with self interests in mind. We don’t have to be taught to lookout for ourselves. What we are taught, through the Gospel, is to lookout for the interest of others. We are to look for ways we can help others even when they do not see they need such help. In Galatians 6:2 it is commanded for us to
Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
How do we look out for the interest of others?
Last week during worship we had an good ole hymn sing. I was so excited for the generations that grew up listening to, sing to, and worshiping to those songs. Those songs have such a deep meaning to some many people it is great to be able to join in with them and worship God.
At the same time I was hopeful that the generations that has never heard, never sang, and never worshiped to those songs would still be able to connect to them.
This week I am so excited for the generations that grew up with these songs are able to really connect with them during worship. At the same time hopeful that the other generations can connect with them during worship.
In our church services we have five generations. We have the Builders, Boomers, Gen X, Millennial’s, and Gen Z. Each generation having grown up together around the same time period and experienced many of the same world events.
Each generation has a common list of ethics and communication styles.
Last week we had Nate Parrish preach, and he did an awesome job! Nate is three generations removed from the Builder generation and two removed from the Boomer generation. For those generations they could focus on the communication style, the dress style, or the hair style and a rift in our unity could start. Or we could focus on our mutual love for the Kingdom and the love we have for each other and be still to listen to the word the spirit is teaching us.
Here is another example. A few weeks ago we had Pastor Jonathan preach. Pastor Jonathan often preaches in his suit. He is always so professional in his delivery. Pastor Jonathan reminds me of the preachers I had growing up. He tells stories like my old preachers. He tells the same jokes they told. I really enjoy each week he preaches. But to the generations below me, all of that is foreign. It can seem strange, or hard to connect with. My son Jacob is four generations removed from Pastor Jonathan. He and his generation could just disconnect and not hear a word he is preaching or they could have one mind and know We serve an awesome God!
What does the body of Christ look like when we start living to build others up?
On staff as we started to work through what a gospel culture means to us. We started seeing staff watching out for each other. Not to defend each other from attacks but to build each other up. Our staff became as one. When we had questions or concerns we started going to the other staff members and had the tough conversations. Which can be really scary. To open yourself up, to let down your guard and let someone know you are hurt, or confused, or you don’t understand why they did something. But when you know that the two of you are united together with Christ, when you know you both are living a life of humility, when you know that the both of you have the gospel love. It makes having those tough conversations so much easier.
Wouldn’t it be cool to be a part of a church where everybody is patient? Where we thought the best of everyone? I think this is what a Christian church does. When we read 1 Cor 13:4-7 we think of what marriage? I think it is an example of what Gospel love really is.
Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Sounds great right! Okay your homework is to go and do that! See ya next week...
That is easy to say just go and do it. It is much harder to put action to plan. If I’m being honest with you this is where I was for months. Logically I knew what Gospel Culture was. I knew the idea’s I was supposed to be living out. It sounded attractive, I just had no idea how to start.
I remember a few months back I was speaking to Pastor Daniel in my office and I was a little frustrated. You see Pastor Daniel took this new Gospel Culture and he started living it full force. Seeing the gospel love flowing through him was so enticing I just wanted the joy he was living with. I remember telling him I can see Gospel Culture but I wasn’t sure I could define it or enact it. We talked more and the conversation ended. I didn’t feel like I was any closer to understanding or enacting Gospel Culture in my life. So I decided to pray, asking God to show me. I started to take notice to when I saw this culture in action and I made it a point to see how God was using the people around. Here’s what I found.
There are two practical actions we can take in order to help us to start living in a gospel culture.
We have to be learners
We have to serve others
It’s hard to love people I don’t know. It’s hard to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things with strangers. It’s hard for me to put others first if they are strangers.
We have to be learners. We have to leave our comfort and have conversations with people.
Listening to people is one of the easiest ways to learn how to put others first and to start loving them. Listening to people adds value to people.
When we talk to God. God listens to us, he doesn’t listen to learn from us or somehow gain value from us... Why does he listen to us? He loves us. God doesn’t get board with us. He says “tell me more, I want to hear your heart.” He builds us up by listening to us. He builds us up by asking us to work with him. To spend time with him.
Pastor Steve and I have conversations like this all the time. Pastor Steve asked me one time, “Why does your generation wear holy jeans?” He told me what holy jeans mean to his generation, either they were poor or didn’t care about how the looked. I told him that I couldn’t afford a good pair of holy jeans and when people wear them they are wearing the nicest jeans they have.
You see Pastor Steve is wanting to understand so he can think the best of people, and by learning about them he can better connect with them.
We Have to Serve Others
When we serve others the idea of selfish ambition or conceit can’t help but be replaced by selflessness and humble. When we humble ourselves and serve others we unite in the Spirit with them and are focused on one purpose, the Kingdom of Heaven.
Those two simple acts of becoming a learner and a servant made living in a Gospel Culture click in my head. Doing those two things were not foreign to me. In fact I think I was doing both of those things. But now I understand the purpose of them. By those two acts I am following in Jesus’s example. And by doing that I am living a life worthy of the Gospel.
Paul shares a Hymn with the Philippians about Christ to show the ultimate example.
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,
who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be exploited.
Instead he emptied himself
by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity.
And when he had come as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.
For this reason God highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow—
in heaven and on earth
and under the earth—
and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
My take away today is this.
We serve an awesome God!
Living a life that is worthy of the gospel is the call for every Believer.
We are to love each other and put others above ourselves.
There are two easy steps we can take to help reprioritize our minds in order to Put God first, others second, and ourselves last.
Become a learner
Serve Others
Finally if you are here today and you have no idea what this Gospel thing is but you would like to know more in just a few seconds our prayer team and I will be upfront and we would love to talk to you about that.