Well, good morning Valley View. It’s great to be with you as we are starting into a new series in the book of Philippians, we’re coming back to the New Testament after we’ve been in Proverbs for many months. And one of the things I’m excited about for this book in particular, is just how relevant I feel like it is to our church and our age. And there’s a key theme we’re going to draw out today to set up the whole book. We’re only going to be looking at the first two verses. We’ll also be looking at Acts at the foundation of the church in Philippi. But I thought of the reality of what we’re facing right now in our culture. And that’s the start of football season, the start of sports season that has ramped up for many. We were at the U of L game yesterday, about died in the sun. It was so hot and I hear a lot of you are like it was a lot hotter last year. I know it was always worse in the past, but it was hot yesterday. We got through it. It was a great game and I think often when I think about sports, you think of great coaches in any field. Of course, there have been great notable coaches in football often think of John Wooden in basketball. And I think one of the things he was famous for that relates to what we’re talking about today is just the focus on the fundamentals, the focus on the basics. He was famous for taking the time at the beginning of the season to teach his students players how to put on their socks properly, and you’re like, look, I’ve been putting on socks since I was four years old. I know how to do it. But he said, no, you’re not doing it right because you guys are getting blisters. And if your feet aren’t right, nothing else matters. That’s the foundation of everything you do. And almost in a condescending way, he had to push them to get back to the basics. If the basics are right, you can’t build on that. And I think if you’re an athlete, if you’ve been an athlete and anyone who has even performed at a high level, when they find a season where things aren’t strong, they realize I’ve let some of the basics slip. I’ve kind of stopped practicing some of those fundamental things that were the building blocks of everything else. And I think in our spiritual lives we’ve experienced that as well. If you’ve hit a dry season, you realize, hey, I’ve… I’ve stopped reading my Bible regularly. Maybe I’m not praying as much. I’ve let the community time slip. I’m not as regular in my attendance at church. And you realize I gotta go back to the basics. I think that’s one of the main messages. Paul is going to be driving home to the Philippians church, stay focused on the basics, get back to the basics, and we’re going to see that in the book of Philippians today. In fact, I think he’s going to highlight five ways in particular, or five characteristics of a church that is focused on the basics, focused on the fundamentals, grounded in the fundamentals, making sure they’re staying connected to the basics and not letting those stray, not wandering away from those, which is an important message for us as well. So the first one we’re going to look at here, and by the way, Philippians, if you have a, if you have a church Bible, Philippians is on page 921, we’ll be flipping back and forth between Philippians on page 921 and Acts on page 870. Acts 16 is where the church in Philippi was first reached, where the gospel was first brought to them. We’ll be going back and forth, because this is an overview sermon to set the many weeks ahead of the book of Philippians. We want a book of Philippians. We want to understand how the church was started, how it was established there. And the first characteristic we’re going to see here in these first couple of verses in Philippians chapter one, is that the church really had this confidence that was grounded or rooted in their identity. That’s the first characteristic of someone who is grounded on the basics, focusing on the basics. There is a confidence that’s rooted in your identity. It’s rooted in who you are. There’s a strong awareness of who you are. We’re going to see three ways he emphasizes that here. Look at Philippians chapter one. Look at verse one and two. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons. Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re going to examine a couple of the terms he uses here to describe people related to the establishment of the church in the city of Philippi. The first one he uses here is of himself, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. And that word servant is also often translated. In fact, that’s in your outline. That’s the first word here in terms of understanding their identity first. And foremost, they saw that they are servants to the city, servants to Philippi. And that word servant is often also translated as slave. Which is a hard word to hear. A slave of Christ Jesus, a servant of Christ Jesus. More technically, it can be translated as bond servant, which we don’t normally use, but it describes not just when we think of slavery. You think of how slavery was practiced here in the U.S. but really, at this time, slavery bond servant would have been someone who indentured themselves to someone else to pay off a debt. If I owe you a lot of money and I can’t pay it, let me work it off for a season. I will be your slave for a season to work it off. It had clear terms to it on the front end there were things you could do and couldn’t do. But yet also, you weren’t your own any longer. When you enslaved yourself to someone else to pay off that debt, there was a reality to knowing I now serve someone else. And of course, when Paul uses this, he knows I’m a servant of Christ Jesus. First and foremost. That’s my identity. Now, it’s really important to understand why he would lead with that with the people in Philippi, because Philippi was had the special status as a colony of Rome, it was a little different than just any other city they may conquer. There’s plenty of cities they conquered and just said, hey, now you’re our servants. But Philippi gained special status. Maybe almost like we might view Puerto Rico. It’s not a state, but yet they have different status than the rest of the world related to the U.S. Whenever Trump rolls out new tariffs, you know, every country in the world has to give us money. Now in trade, there’s new tariffs. Well, Puerto Rico doesn’t worry about that. Now. We know we have a different status. We have a different relationship with the U.S.. And so this Roman colony status Philippi. It had been started by Alexander the Great who conquered through Greece much of the known world. But then he named Philippi after his father, Philip, or father-in-law, I can’t remember which, one or the other then the Romans, though, when they fought around the whole Caesar Augustus, and killing him and figuring out who’s going to be in charge, they reconquered Philippi, and they established it as a Roman colony, giving it special status. Now here’s what this meant for the people in Philippi. They started to think of themselves as a little more special than everyone else. Yeah, we’re not just your average, every everyday conquered city. We’re a little better than that. They gave us special status, and so they started to get a little uppity, and they all started to really care about their titles and names and status. And oh, are you a real Roman citizen or not? And they worried about that a lot. That’s why it’s important that when Paul comes to them, normally when he introduces himself, usually the word apostle is listed there. I’m an apostle. I’m coming to you with some status, with some authority to speak into your lives. And he doesn’t say that here. You want to worry about titles. Let me tell you about my title. I’m. I’m a Slave to Christ. That’s the kind of title you need to be worried about. So he establishes the importance of understanding your true identity. Don’t get all uppity. Know who you are first and foremost. If you’re a Christian, you’re a slave to Christ Jesus. But look at what else he calls them. He calls them saints to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi. And that word saints is often also translated holy ones. It has that idea of holiness in it. Holiness meaning set apartness. When we study the Old Testament, when you read all those Old Testament laws and you wonder, why couldn’t they wear mixed fabrics or all these different weird laws? And you go, what was going on there? I think one of the most helpful things related to that that has helped me is just to understand the key idea there is that they were meant to be a nation set apart from everyone else around them. That was the key idea that God want them to understand your mind. You’re not your own. You’re set apart. You’re to be different from everyone else around you. That’s at the core of that idea of holiness set apart. They’re saints. They’re meant to be set apart from the rest of the world around them. They have a different allegiance. They have a different way to live. There’s also another reality to that that’s really important to remember, because when he calls them saints, he says they are saints in Christ Jesus. So yes, we are called to be set apart from the world around us. We are called to live differently. But too many times this becomes we are called to be opposed to the world around us. Our main goal is to be different than them by opposing them. But we’re to be called set apart in Christ Jesus. It’s not that we are. Our main goal is to oppose the world. Our main goal is to move towards Christ. Now, as a result of that, hopefully our longing for the things of the world will lessen. But don’t get that upside down. Don’t lose your focus. And churches that become focused on just opposing everyone around them become angry churches that no one wants to be around. Become legalistic churches. Make sure our focus remains on Christ. We had the chance. Friday night Julie and I went to Celebrate Recovery service. That’s over at Fairdale Christian. Fairdale Christian’s over off Newcut You can, if you go down Gene Snyder, you can see it there on Gene Snyder. And they have this huge Celebrate Recovery group that meets on Friday nights. And the they have probably 200, 250 people there. It was awesome. When we were pulling up, I was like, oh, that’s so nice of them. They’re grilling outside, having, making dinner ready for everyone. Well, they weren’t grilling. That was everyone outside smoking beforehand. It was just the smoke was coming up in huge columns. Hey, that’s all right. That’s cool. But we go in. And that night, one of our members was giving her testimony, Joanne Goodman, many years of sobriety, and God was using her to encourage the many others who were there. One of the powerful parts of that night. And there was so many powerful moments, man, every time someone one month, two months, three months sober comes up and gets a coin to celebrate and everybody’s cheering and whoop and holler, I mean, it was moving. But one of the things that really stood out to me, there was actually very little said during that time, and I know they got off in their small groups and talked about this very little mention of the actual addictive substances there. They hardly talked about alcohol, they hardly talked about drugs. They hardly talked about the thing they were trying to avoid. But what they talked about a lot was Jesus. His name came up over and over again. Jesus is the one that gave them freedom. Jesus is the one they’re pursuing and focused on, not the thing I’m trying to avoid. We’re not ignoring it either. It’s a reality. But I’m focused on him first and foremost. And that’s the idea. When you think of yourself as a saint, you’re a saint who’s serving Christ and the other things. The more focused we are on him the addictions, the distractions, over time those just fall away. They’re saints. But now notice the last thing that he refers to them as in terms of understanding their identity, understanding who they are. Paul and Timothy, servants to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi. Last he calls them citizens. Yeah. You’re saints. Yes, you’re meant to be set apart, but yet you’re here. You’re a citizen. You live somewhere, you have neighbors, you live in a city. And the call is to invest where you are. You’re not so set apart that you can’t relate to the people around us. We’re still called to reach Louisville to reach the south end of Louisville. In particular, we call it Downtown Prairie Village. When we drive down third, make the corner on to Valley Station Road, and we’re driving through downtown Prairie Village. We’re thinking, man, how has God, God called us to reach this area right next to our church? How has God called us to reach the street that juts out from our church in the few homes back there? How is he called us to reach this immediate area around us? And it’s fascinating to me how caught up in some churches get in reaching the world for Christ. And we got thousands and thousands of people that you can see from the rooftop of the church, thousands of people. We’re called to be citizens too. To be good neighbors, to be the kind of person that people want to get to know better, that people respect, so that then they will want to come and know who is this guy you keep talking about this Jesus guy. I’ve heard his name before. Tell me more about him. They have a confidence here and at the basics. At the core of who they are is a confidence rooted in knowing who they are servants, saints, citizens. That’s the first way how this church a characteristic of a church that gets back to the basics. Second is that they are mission minded. They’re mission minded in the midst of knowing who they are, they’re also mission focused, mission minded, outward focused, knowing what God has called them to be about. And part of how we understand this is understanding how the church was begun. So turn back over to Acts chapter 16. Acts 16 is this continuation of the missionary journeys Paul was on, and in each of his journeys, often he took people with him. In fact, that’s why the book of Philippians starts with Paul and Timothy, servants, plural of Jesus Christ. He was on a mission trip and had other people with him, serving with him. And so they went around to various places. Now they were on this second journey where they were traveling all through Asia, starting to work up into Europe. And here’s how this particular journey started. Look at verse one. In chapter 16, Paul came also to Derby and to Lystra, a disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, which is great, by the way. I mean, if you’re a young Christian and Paul comes through the town and wants you to help him, that’s a big deal, man. Billy Graham passes through here and he grabs one of our young guys and said, man, come serve with me. What a huge honor to be asked to do that. Now, here’s a characteristic of their mission mindedness that really stands out. We’re going to see and this is the blank in your outline to fill it. Timothy was very committed to the cause. Because what does Paul ask of him? Look here, he was well spoken of. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and so he took him aside and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places. For they all knew that his father was a Greek. I wonder how that conversation went. Yeah, come serve me. We’d love for you to help me on this missionary journey. You want me to do what? Wait. Hold on. What? I need to pray about that a little bit. That’s a big step to take. And of course, we don’t know how all that went, but the implications are He was all in. What does it take? It? Paul talks about I become all things to all people so that some may know the Lord. Timothy, whatever I need to do to serve the kingdom of God, I’m there. I trust you, Paul. He was committed. And if you’re the Philippian church and you learn about Timothy, you know this guy cares. He’s committed. He’s all in to reach us. It goes on to say, as they went their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and they increased in numbers daily. So the beginning of this missionary journey is going around to different cities where there were already churches established, and they’re sharing some of the decisions related to the broader understanding of how Jews and Gentiles were supposed to relate. We see a lot more of that in the book of Galatians. They’re coming around sharing. Look, here’s what the church is determined. Here’s how you should interact with one another. Here’s how you should live. Live. And it’s related. It’s ending up with lots of people coming to follow Christ, many more in the church growing and strengthening in their faith. But this is also a missionary journey. They’re not just about going around to the people who already know Christ. They want to go to new territory. They want to go to new places. They want to go to places where the gospel has not come. And so he’s committed toward that in but how are they going about this? The second thing to realize about their mission mindedness is that they are spirit led. They’re spirit led. Look at verse six. And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. Let me just stop there for a second. I’m Timothy, I’ve gone through a significant medical procedure so I can join this missionary journey. And now you’re telling me there’s places we can’t go? You’re telling me the Holy Spirit is saying, no, no, no, don’t go there. Okay, why are we out here? Let’s keep going at least. Maybe the next place. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia. But the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them there either. What are we doing here, Paul? I went through all this. We’re traveling hundreds and hundreds of miles, and it seems it’s a closed door after closed door. But Paul’s listening to the Spirit. Holy Spirit, where do you want us? It’s not about me and my agenda. Where do you want us to go? I thought this would be a great place. You’re redirecting us. Spirit led so passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas and a vision appeared to Paul in the night a man of Macedonia was standing there urging them, saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Spirit led, listening to the Spirit to direct them, even when it seems like things aren’t going the way I would plan it. And even when he speaks to Paul in things like through dreams. I really believe this. I believe God still speaks to us today, and he still speaks through dreams. And by the way, dreams can be insane and crazy and weird. Not every dream is from God, right? Filter anything, by the way. Through prayer, through wisdom, through God’s Word, through the counsel of other respected people. But he does. He does still direct and speak through dreams. Listen to what he might be saying to you. That takes a lot of wisdom, but that doesn’t mean we just write it off, as he could never do that just because it’s hard, just because it’s not always clear. And that’s the Christian life in general. It’s not always easy, hard, clear. We need a lot of wisdom, but they are going, leading by the spirit, not just taking direction, not just taking charge on their own. Listen to the Spirit. And then the third one in this list, they stayed focused on the mission. They continued to stay focused on the mission. They continued to stay engaged as they are mission minded. Look at verse 14 and 15. One who heard us when they had landed in Philippi. In fact, let’s read just a little bit… So setting sail from Troas, verse 11, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, and a Roman colony. And we remained in this city some days. So they do finally land in Philippi, a place they’re going to stay for a little bit of time. And then down in 14 one who heard us, there was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyratira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. And the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after that she was baptized. I love this picture here. Here they come to Philippi. They go to a place where a number of women who were worshipers of God were already gathered. They meet them there, and the picture that I took away from this is they’re, they’re not there to try to read, to reach the famous people. They’re not there to try to reach the governor, the leaders in the town. And maybe I’m sure they would hope that happens. But they’re starting out with Lydia, a lady selling clothing out of her garage. I mean, we don’t know if that’s exactly how it went, but she’s not of some high status. And the next person we’ll see them reach is the the jailer, the corrections officer. Just regular everyday people. And look, that’s Valley View right there. We’re just regular everyday people. There’s nothing special about us. There’s nothing highly esteemed in Louisville. No one’s lining up for interviews from the news and press after the service, wondering why we were here and what we’re doing with our lives. I love this passage in your notes. First Corinthians 1:26. Consider your calling brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. And that’s all of us. That’s us. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong so that as it is written, but the one who boasts boast in the Lord. They stayed focused on their mission and their mission, their mission mindedness said, we’re here to reach whoever Christ brings our way. There’s not people that we go, sorry, you’re below us and we’re too good for you. Come on, come on, come as you are, come as you are. Don’t stay where you are. But come as you are. Come on. It’s okay. God has given us a mission, and we’re going to stay mission minded. And we’re going to get back to the basics when things don’t seem to be going well and stay focused on missions, how do we reach those who are around us? So that’s the second back to the basics characteristic of a church. And then the third is to be prayer dependent. We’re called to be prayer dependent. And it’s really interesting how this church began in Philippi, because oftentimes the way something begins is how it continues. Look back at how the church began back in Acts 16. We remained in the city some days. This is the end of verse 12, and on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. The first place they went to was a place that was known as a place of prayer. The church in Philippi, its roots, its foundation, its beginning was in a place of prayer. They were prayer dependent, and every church that is growing and flourishing is prayer dependent. Deeply prayer dependent. You may remember two years ago now, almost exactly two years ago, we had our 85th anniversary celebration as a church. So now we’re in our 87th year. We keep getting older every year that keeps happening. And one of the pictures I showed you during that time was of Lula Tyree. Go ahead and throw that photo up. If we have it here, put it on the screen. Lula lived across the street from the church in one of these houses, and it may not even be there anymore. It may have been on the very corner, and she had a burden for reaching the children in the community. There was. That’s not Lula, by the way. So it’ll be up there eventually. Maybe. If not, it’s okay. Lula had a burden for reaching the community. There was lots of children in the area and she said, who going to reach these kids? Who’s going to reach them? Annie Quillen was sitting on the porch with her, and they just began to pray. She said, would God open the door for us to reach this community? Let’s pray. These children desperately need the gospel and they just prayed and they prayed and they prayed. And then they had their first meeting there in the living room, five adults, 12 children. And they said, God’s got more he wants to reach. And they prayed, and they prayed and they prayed. And by the end of that summer, they had 40 people meeting. And they said, we can’t meet in this little house anymore. But across the street is a field and a nice shade tree. Let’s go over there. We’ll just sit under the tree. We’ll have church under the tree. And before long others said, hey, we’d like to join you, but we’d like somewhere to sit. And so one guy said, look, I’ll donate the wood for the benches. And they build benches and they sit under a tree. And that’s just right outside those doors where that tree was right over there. And they stayed dependent on prayer. God, would you provide? Okay, now we have so many people coming and we do need a building. Would you provide? And the story after story after story of them praying and begging God to move. Would you bring more people? Would you provide church after church stepped up, sent ministers, sent money, provide, provide, provide prayer dependent. A church is only going to grow as much as their personal dependence on prayer. And I don’t know what your personal prayer life is like, but I know mine is not where I would like it to be. And so here’s what I want to ask of our church. This week. Just this week, would you focus on praying for this church every day? If you could commit to that, would you just raise your hand? I’ll pray for this church every day. Pray for this church to be more dependent on prayer. It’s a simple prayer. God, could we become more dependent on prayer every day this week? Just pray that simple thing. Find a window to do that every day. Let’s just see what he does as we become more prayer dependent. I want to watch him move like Lula saw him move. I want to watch him stir in our community, there are thousands of people, even within probably less than a mile radius of this church, who do not know Christ. Prayer. Prayer dependent. The church began on prayer there, and we want to continue that. And when we’re when we’re hungry to see him grow, we got to get back to the basics. And prayer is at the very core of the basics of how God moves through a church. The beautiful part of that is he gets the glory. He gets all the glory for it. When we see him move through prayer, there’s no other chance to take it. So their prayer dependent, mission minded, prayer dependent, confidence rooted in identity. And then number four, they’re pressing forward. Our whole theme for this series is press on. It’s a big theme of the book of Philippians –Press on. And there’s a lot of layers to that. One that we’re going to emphasize today is the advancement of the gospel. Continue to press the gospel forward, continue even in the midst of whatever challenges you might be facing. Continue to press the gospel forward. This is extremely relevant to the Philippians because this also is connected into how their church began. Paul was just there probably a few days and look what happens to him. Turn to verse 16 in chapter– Acts chapter 16. As they were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, these men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation. Hey, that’s actually pretty good that she has rightly assessed that and is saying it. And this she kept doing for many days. Paul became greatly annoyed by this. So however she was going about this, it wasn’t to build them up, it was to try to limit their influence. I mean, it was a spirit, an evil spirit within her. He was greatly annoyed by this. He turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus to come out of her. And it came out that very hour. Just a brief side comment on that, by the way. Okay, there’s a lot going on in the story. We had a circumcision, now we have an exorcism. There’s a lot happening. But notice sometimes when it comes to evil spirits, demons in people, people can get really weird and they go off what they’ve seen on TV or heard in stories. All Paul does is say the name of Jesus. And the demons have to flee. It’s not some super complicated thing. He just calls out by the name of Jesus, you can’t be here. And there’s so much power in the name of Jesus. You can rest in the in the power of his name by the way, it’s not in my ability to cast out a demon. It’s in the power of his name. We proclaim his name with power. Now that’s a side note about where this instance, this conversation is headed. Because when Paul does that, notice what happens. They’re not happy about this because they’ve been making lots of money off her ability to tell the future. When her owners, verse 19, saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas, dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers, and when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, these men are Jews. They’re disturbing our city. They advocate customs are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice. And here’s how this ended up. The crowd joined in attacking them and the magistrates tore the garments of them, gave orders to beat them with rods, and when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them there. Paul was just there a few days and where does he end up? In prison, beaten, put in jail. Put in stocks. Paul is actually writing this letter in Philippi. The letter to the Philippians. He’s writing from prison probably ten years later, most likely in Rome, in prison, writing to them, which they’re not going to be shocked by. This is how things started. Yeah. No surprise. Paul’s in prison again. That’s kind of what he does. He stirs up the people there and they get mad at him and throw him in prison. But they keep pressing on because look at how Paul and Silas react to this. And I don’t know about you, but if today police came in and threw me in prison for standing up here and talking about Jesus, I wouldn’t be very happy about it. It’s not something I would relish in and be excited about. That wouldn’t be my first reaction. Hopefully I would read Acts 16 and my attitude would change because look at how they respond. Verse 25, about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. In the midst of the imprisonment and of the beatings, they’re trusting that God has a plan. This is opening a door for the gospel. We’re continuing to press forward. We’re continuing to press the gospel forward. Man, I want to have that kind of mindset. I want to have that kind of hope. I want to tackle challenges that way and see how is, God must be doing something here. This is so bad. I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do. Here’s what happens. Suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened. Everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, do not harm yourself, we’re all here. And the jailer called for lights, and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. He brought them out and said, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. You and your household. They spoke the word of the Lord to him. To all who were in his house. He took them the same hour of the night, washed their wounds. He was baptized at once, he and all his family. In the midst of the challenge, they stayed focused on advancing the gospel, on pressing on, on trusting that Christ is at work. And so when hard times comes and in your notes, Paul writes from prison, hard times will come– as the next, next to last point in your outline– hard times will come. When hard times come, because they will come. If you’re a Christian, you will face hard times because…that’s not an exception, by the way, it’s because you are Christian you can expect that there will be hard times. There just will be. Too many people are confused by that and surprised by that. I thought my life would be perfect after I came to know Christ, I thought my life would be easier. And by the way, in some ways it is because there’s peace and joy and hope that you never had before. But challenges still come. There will still be people oppose you. There might be more people oppose you as a result. They continue to press on to trust that God was at work, and trust that he was going to move through the challenges they were facing. And that’s a characteristic of a church that is getting back to the basics. They’re not derailed when hard times come. They ask simply, what is God doing through this? What is he going to do? How is he working? Something big’s about to happen. I know it because hard times are happening. They press on. Now all this leads to the most foundational element of a church that is getting back to the basics. And it’s the major theme of the book of Philippians. It’s the major idea of the book of Philippians, and it’s that a church that’s focused on getting back to the basics is inherently, ultimately, foundationally Christ centered, Christ centered. Christ is at the center of all we do. We can have great programs all day long. We can even talk about the Bible all day long. We can do evangelism even. And it’s fascinating how many times we can do that and leave Christ out of it. At the core of all we do, we have to be Christ centered. He has had to be at the very center of all we do. And one of the things that Paul addresses with the Philippians is the importance of being unified. That’s one of the big themes in the book of Philippians, which, by the way, shouldn’t be surprising. The church in Philippi is going to be a very young church. Like I said, Paul’s writing them maybe ten years later. Imagine if this church was only ten years old. And by the way, everyone here had only been a Christian ten years. Everyone. But what happens with a new group of Christians? You get great zeal and enthusiasm and excitement. But Paul talks about their zeal, but not according to knowledge and sometimes our zeal. In fact, one commentator, I love it how he said it this way. New life often is accompanied by new divisions, side by side. We become very zealous, thinking that every marker of holiness is an absolute and ultimate, and we start to divide over secondary and tertiary things. It happens all the time. And so that’s why Paul is talking to them about unity. Stay focused on Christ. Look at chapter two. He says it this way. Why should you be unified? Verse three do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this attitude, this mind in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus, who was found in human form. He humbled himself to the point of obedience, even to obedient obedience upon the cross. The reason why we need to move towards unity, the reason why we need to figure out what’s primary, what’s secondary, and put aside the secondary things. It’s not just for unity sake, it’s because that’s who Christ is. That’s what he’s about. And if we’re all focused on him, unity is a natural byproduct, and it’s something he’s going to address over and over again. The importance of being Christ centered in all we do. If a church finds itself in a place where it feels off track, if you find yourself in a place where you feel like you’re in a lull spiritually and get back to the basics, focus on knowing who am I in Christ. Focus on community. Focus on prayer. Being rooted in prayer. Stay mission minded. How do I tell others about Christ and how do I trust him through the hard times which will come all while staying Christ centered in all we do? That’s the call for Valley View. I believe God has great things for us in the coming days. Amazing things. But we can’t leave the basics. We got to stay focused on the foundational elements of the church and all that we do. Be praying for our church this week. Every day. Pray for our church to be dependent on prayer and dependent on Christ. And let’s watch him move this year. Let’s pray. God, we thank you for this morning. Thank you for your word that guides us. And I would pray, just like the church that’s in Philippi, that we’re going to learn a lot about in the coming days. Would you help us to be rooted in you, to be dependent on prayer, to be trusting you for all things, to have the wisdom to know what is secondary and what is primary. Help us to be so hungry for you that we can’t stop thinking about you, and can’t stop talking about you in all that we do. I pray this church would be known for that all throughout Windsor Forest, Windsor Lakes, Prairie Village, Lambourne, Valley Station, Southend, Louisville Broadly, Jefferson County. Kentuckiana. All through the south. All through the United States. Let this be a place where the world knows you are at work. And let it just start here today in our own homes. Love you Jesus. Amen.