Good morning church. How are we doing? It’s a pleasure to open up God’s word with you this morning. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Philippians chapter one, verse 28. We’re going to just look at four verses this morning, and I’m excited to continue our series. I don’t need that. Yeah, I don’t want that in my way. I like to flail my arms. No I don’t. But glad to be with you this morning to share God’s word with you. Pastor John is away visiting his son in Arizona, so I’m sure he’s hanging off a cliff somewhere, I’m sure, or doing some dangerous bike ride or something. But pray for Pastor John that he makes it back from this, from this endeavor. But, so glad that I get to share that word with you this morning, and we’ll continue our series in the book of Philippians. And it’s been great uncovering the truth in this book. It’s such an important book to our faith, and I’m so thankful we have it. But as I was preparing, I remembered growing up that I was a horrible teammate. I played baseball growing up, and I recall not being a very good teammate. So I was the type of kid that if I was doing really well, I was all smiles and high fives. But if I was having a bad game, I didn’t want anything to do with anybody and it wouldn’t matter if were winning or losing, I had a bad attitude. And this kind of continued all the way up and through high school. And as I played, I still carry this attitude that my teammates were actually obstacles. They were in opposition to me, and they’re keeping me from maybe being better or having more playing time or what have you. But by God’s grace, through a couple of sports injuries, I ended up at a Christian college, and when I go there, I still carried over this attitude that I need to be number one. I don’t really care about the team, I just want to play. I want to be at the center of everything. And so I still carry this attitude. I wasn’t a very good teammate until I met my teammates on my college team, and these guys were the real deal. They love Jesus, and they were good at what they did on the field. And so they really changed my perspective in my attitude, slowly but surely. And seeing them live out their faith. Talk about their faith. It was eye opening to me because that actually made them good teammates. And so, I had a lot of introspection at that point in my life. And then God, using that and other various things, he brought me to faith in Christ while I was a freshman at college on a baseball team. And as a result, I became a better teammate. I realized even in this sport, it’s not about me. It’s instead about the team that if we can lock arms, bolster together and we can build this team up, we can be even better. And in fact, when you put your team first, you actually make yourself better. So from the the practice field to the gym to even having team Bible studies, we were getting better because the team was first. And honestly, this was the first glimpse that I had of what the church was supposed to look like, because we’re going to see this morning that we as the church, we are called to live a life that is worthy of the gospel that we profess. And to do that, it cannot be done by yourself. It is implied and said all over the Bible that life, especially the Christian life, is meant to be in community together. So when you see one big main idea this morning, here it is. A life worthy of the gospel is marked by standing firm in unity and sharing the gospel fearlessly. We’re going to unpack three specific ways that Paul says, this is how you’re supposed to live the Christian life, and a worthy way to do it. And so for my church people in the building, we are called to live a particular way. But if you don’t consider yourself a Christian or you’re or you’re still entertaining this whole idea, bear with me, because there is beauty and fruit in this message that I believe God wants to speak to you this morning. But just to give us a little bit of context, I know Pastor John’s already done this with the book, but this book is written by the Apostle Paul. He goes to a place called Philippi in which he plants a church there. And so he now writes this letter back to them. What’s interesting about Philippi is that this city is a Roman colony. It was its own city, but it was under the jurisdiction and authority of the Roman government in about 31 BC. There are some some folks called Octavian and Mark Antony. They were kind of important in Roman history. Octavian later became Caesar, but they came, took over Philippi and established a colony in this city. Now, what’s interesting is they then took Roman veteran soldiers and colonized this city. So Philippi, as we’re about to read even more in this book today, this was a city of veterans, a Roman city of veterans. And so they wanted to keep the the Roman persuasion there. They wanted to keep their authority over the city. And this was just one way in which they did it. They highly valued this city. So you can imagine you can imagine the people of Philippi having a deep pride in their relationship to Rome. As you can imagine, they really cared about Rome. In fact, what was even greater is to be a Roman citizen. As we’re going to unpack to this morning, they had a lot of pride in the fact that they were related to Rome. And some of them, many of them were Roman citizens. But Paul is going to address that directly in our text today. So let’s look at Philippians. Actually, let me give you a little context too, because I’ve brought this in here. So in acts chapter 16, Paul visits the city, plants the church, and all of a sudden people get a little upset. Look at this in Acts 16. This gives us a little picture of of what they valued. But this is Acts 16, verse 37. But Paul said to them, he’s been thrown in prison, and this is what he says. They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned men who are Roman citizens. So Paul says, I’m a Roman citizen, along with these people that are with me, they have thrown us into prison. And do they now throw us out secretly because they were thrown without due process, without a court case? And he says, no, let them come themselves and take us out. Let’s make it as public as possible. The next verse the police reported these words that Paul spoke to the magistrates as the people over the city. They were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. Here’s their idea of being a Roman citizen was very important to them. And so verse 39, they so they came and apologized to them, and they took them out and asked them to leave the city. So what was once an angry mob turned to in an apologetic crowd. I’m we’re sorry, Paul, we didn’t know you were a Roman citizen. That makes you better. You can get out of here. Just do it secretly. But as we’re going to see in this very first verse, just being a Roman citizen should not disregard our Christian citizenship. Look at this Philippians chapter one, verse 27. The main point in our passage, this morning, it says, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. You unpack this. This is basically Paul saying, the way that you live your life should match up with what you confess to believe. If you talk the talk, you should walk the walk, right? If you confess to believe in Jesus, then your life should show up as being a Christian. And so this phrase here, let your manner of life, let your manner of life. That phrase is actually one Greek word. The New Testament was written in the Greek, and it was a common language at this point. And Paul’s very specific about what he’s doing here. Paul uses this phrase or this word, this Greek word that is politically charged on purpose. The word literally means to be a citizen, to be a citizen. But notice in this verse he tags on the end of it. He says, you need to be. You need to be a citizen that walks worthy of the gospel of Christ. So what is he saying here? He’s saying that if you claim to be a Christian, you should live a life that is worthy of being a citizen of heaven. That’s what he’s getting at. He could have easily used another word which he commonly used in his letters, but he specifically uses this one for a particular purpose because he knows where the Philippians allegiance lie. It’s in Rome, it’s in their citizenship. And so let me say this this morning, Christians have transferred their citizenship to heaven and reside on earth, passing through as sojourners. You’ve heard the phrase right, this is not my home. I’m just passing through right? It is so clear in the Word of God that when we accept Christ, when we come to faith in Jesus, our citizenship is now transferred to another place. But this isn’t our home, that our main identity is not rooted and grounded in the place that we live now, but in the place that we’re heading. Our citizenship is in heaven. And here’s the temptation, I think, even for us, that we could probably share with the Philippians, we too can put a deep rooted pride in America above our citizenship in heaven. We can elevate our citizenship as being Americans as great as our country is. As much as I love our country as being greater than our citizenship, citizenship in heaven, that is, I find my identity more as an American than I do as a Christian. So Paul’s challenging them. If you’re a Christian and you’re in Philippi, where does your allegiance primarily reside? Is it in Caesar? Is it in Rome, or is it with Christ in the Kingdom of God? So he’s already charging them. How are you? How are you living your life? Are you living your life worthy of the gospel, or is it just worthy of being another Roman citizen? Here’s another way easy way to put it for us this morning. With a heavenly citizenship should come a heavenly way of life. So if we claim to follow Christ, if we have been transferred into the citizenship of heaven to be a Christian, a child of God, then our life should reflect that. And Lord knows that all of us in this room are imperfect. No one’s showing up today saying, I have achieved perfection. If you have come, talk to me. But here’s the reality your life should match up with what you confess. Because as Christians, we have now inherited a new moral code that is higher and better and greater than any constitution or document or governmental authority that we could find on this earth. We are called to a greater place. That’s why Jesus says, you have to keep the great commandment, which is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. He says to love your enemies. Find that in the Constitution. I’m going to bash the Constitution, something. The Constitution is one of the most beautiful documents ever written. But the Great commandment is far greater. We have an allegiance to Christ that needs to take priority and is the primary thing that we need to focus on. So he goes on here. So here’s the point. Let your life or live, live your life in a manner that’s worthy of the gospel. And he goes on here so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you. So he said this last week, I want to come see you. If I can’t come see you, at least want to hear about you, that you are living your life for the gospel. And so we expands on it, that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind. This is a really cool phrase here to stand firm it and he kind of gives this military kind of imagery here. What was interesting about Philippi is they were on a road in which the Roman army would often travel around Philippi, and they would often see these Roman armies, these Roman soldiers marching along to do battle or to or to make, or to travel somewhere. So this was something that they would see often. And he’s saying, stand firm like this. And in fact, with all these veteran soldiers in this city, this clearly would have hit home for them. So Paul saying, we need to stand firm in two ways, in one spirit and in one mind. Now there’s been disagreement about what one spirit means, whether it’s the Holy Spirit or whether it’s having a common spirit between believers. But both are true. So whichever way you go. But here’s what Paul’s trying to say. We need to be together and unified in our beliefs, unified in our purpose, unified in our direction, unified in our conviction, unified together as the body of Christ. That’s his point here. And so if I can make this first point, this is the first mark that we’re going to see that Paul gives us this morning. So the first mark is that we are called to stand firm in unity, to stand firm in unity. Just incredible imagery that Paul gives to lock arms with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And no matter what comes our way, we’re not going to budge. We’re not going to let the culture sway us off of the gospel. At Valley View, we we strive that everything that we do is grounded in God’s Word. It’s while we emphasize it. On Sunday morning. It’s why we encourage you to have a personal, ongoing Bible devotion that you’re in God’s Word. Personally. It’s why we encourage you to attend a live group to get in God’s Word in community. It’s why we have our groups on Wednesday. In fact, pastor has a something called a pastor’s class where he meets over here and on the side of the lobby and one of these rooms, and he basically takes us through who Valley View is, where we’re getting our theology, where we’re getting our doctrine. And he has a lot of question and answer because we want to be as transparent as possible, that this church is grounded on God’s Word, and we’re unified in it. Amen. And so because of that, we should be unified in where we’re headed, the Great Commission. The purpose of why we exist is not to stay within this room, but to go out into the south, into the community and spread beyond that, that we can reach the nation, this nation and beyond with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We all are unified in that. So Paul says, you know what it looks like to live a life worthy. The gospel is your unified. You’re in a body of Bible believing Christians where you are pursuing Christ and you all are heading in the same direction. And I pray that would be said of Valley View. So he goes on in verse 27, first he says, standing firm in one spirit, with one mind. But then he adds this really important phrase, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. So first Paul gives us this like military imagery, but now he gives us a little athletic imagery. This word striving side by side is is the word athletic. So do you know that you kind of hear what that sounds like? Athlete, athletic, athlete. He’s saying that as Christians, we are called to be athletes on the same team competing against an opponent. And so he’s saying here is we should be striving side by side together for the faith of the gospel. My daughter recently just started, soccer here at Valley View. I don’t know if you all have ever attended a four year old soccer match. If you haven’t, you’re more than welcome to come watch on Saturday. It’s free admission. It’s the best four year old soccer you’re going to find in the state of Kentucky. And it’s so interesting that when the whistle is blown and the match starts, it is the most organized chaos I’ve ever seen. Because it ceases to be about the team. Every kid is now out to get that ball, and it is no matter which side the ball’s going on, the kids is going to go after it. And thank God that that Keith has gotten them t shirts, because if they didn’t have t shirts on, we wouldn’t know who’s team they are on. But it’s kind of a funny way to see that sometimes this is kind of the way that the church can look, where you can’t tell who’s on who’s team, and in fact, it’s just you’re competing against each other. But what Paul says is we need to strive side by side. We need to labor. We need to compete with each other against the opponent. There is this picture. We are on Team Jesus and we’re competing against the opponent. But you know what? A life worthy of the gospel doesn’t look like Christians fighting each other. That’s the exact opposite. So listen, Paul is saying something very specific here. You’re not just striving side by side for your own personal faith, he says. You’re striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, meaning we are striving to share the gospel. It is an outward sending of believers sharing the gospel by our conduct, by our life, and by our words. We are sharing people the good news of Jesus. So listen the labor of evangelism or sharing our gospel is a team effort that all Christians are called to do. Sharing your faith in evangelism is not reserved for the Christians with degrees. It’s not reserved to bald Christians, if I could give another category. It’s not reserved to Christians who have the whole Bible memorized. The first Christians that we’re really starting to believe in, Jesus were still figuring out their faith. Paul’s talking to a church that’s not very old. It’s not about how much Bible memorize you’ve had. Although we want you to memorize the Bible, but instead, if you’ve accepted Christ and even professing to believe you’re now on the team. But here’s the problem. Sometimes we take the approaches. I’m going to take the bench roll. Good luck. I’m a cheer you on too. I’ll even say a prayer for you. Oh, you need to share your faith with someone at your work. I’m going to say a prayer for you, but I’m going to stay back on the bench. Rah rah rah rah. That’s not the way the church is called to be. If we want to live a life worthy of the gospel, we have to get into the game. We have to take a step of faith and to live out our life and share the gospel. Us personally. If it’s reserved to a select few, we will not reach as many people as Christ is calling us to. But but you know what? Say everyone in this room? We reach one person this year, the room would double. We wouldn’t be able to fit anybody in here. So what’s stopping us? Paul is saying we need to bear arms, walk together. We’re on the same team, and we’re marching because we want to share the faith of the gospel. Amen. So the second mark, to live a life worthy of the gospel is to labor together for the spread of the gospel. You and me, to labor together for the spread of the gospel. So whether it’s at school related, a workplace, whether it’s in your own home, whether it’s the person you interact with through the drive thru or at the grocery store, that we have a calling to live our life in such a way that it is a billboard for the gospel, and we need to use our words. Now I want to give you. I wish I could spend more time on this, I can’t, I want to share just one verse here. Colossians 3:15 – but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared. Be ready to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. Two key words, gentleness and respect. And preparing to share your faith doesn’t happen when that coworker asks you that question. Preparing to share your faith doesn’t happen when you see that that person that’s that’s crying, and you need to go and minister to them. Preparing you for your faith happened yesterday. It’s a daily, ongoing process. And so we need to actually defend and share our faith with these two words, gentleness and respect. Out of at a pastor, I heard him just recently. He said, gentleness is strength under control. It’s like wrestling your grandkids. It’s wrestling your kids. So when we share the gospel, we are gentle in how we talk to them. We are gentle and asking questions and getting their their words. And then we gently nudge them and lead them towards the gospel with truth and grace, and to do it with respect. So let’s get on to verse 28 and not frightened Paul. Now he’s giving another example of, of our mark of to live a life worthy of the gospel, verse 28, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation in that from God. In other words, don’t be intimidated. And he says in anything. The threats, the maligning, the threat to cancel you, maybe even a threat to fire you. We should be on unashamed of the gospel, but doing it within means not to be rude or disrespectful or to shove it down their throat. But with gentleness and respect, we share the gospel. And he says, don’t be intimidated by anything. And here’s the truth. If you haven’t figured this out already, when you take a firm stance on anything, you will inevitably find opponents. If you take a firm stance on being a UK fan or a U of L fan, you’re going to find opponents in this room. If you take a firm stance on whether noodles should be in Chili or not, you’re going to fight opponents and maybe even in your own row, in your own household. And all those things are are minor and silly, right? But to be serious, if you take a firm stance against abortion. You’re going to find opponents. If you take a firm stance against homosexuality and gender ideology and CRT, you’re going to find opponents. But again, all of that to say, we take a firm stance with love, with truth, with gentleness, with respect. That’s the call. But when you do it, don’t be afraid to get pushback. But here’s the cool part when the church takes a firm stance and is not intimidated by the threats, by the threats to be beaten, mocked, scorned, killed, two things happen. Two things that your opponents will recognize. If the church does this, they will realize that they are paving their way to eternal destruction. But they’ll also see that the church is on the narrow path of salvation. It’ll occur to them, I can’t do anything to these people. All I can do is kill them. What else can I do? They won’t stop preaching. They won’t stop living. They won’t stop loving. They won’t stop sharing the truth. Even though they. Even though I hate them, they still love me. That’s the power. Then they realize I may be heading down the wrong path. I need to take their path on the road to salvation. Hey, what do you mean by all this stuff? So here’s the third mark. To live a life worthy of the gospel is to live fearlessly. To not live with a fear of man, but a fear of God. Look at what? Look what Jesus says in Matthew 10:28 and do not fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill your soul. The worst thing that our opponents can do is to take our life now, but they can’t take our eternity. But instead we should fear who fear him, who can destroy both soul and body in him, to fear God, to fear the one who who created us and made us and has every authority over every person who’s ever lived. He is the one we need to fear and live for. So jumping our last two verses this morning 29 and 30, Philippians 1:29-30, it has been granted also is this this word that means graciously give, for it has been granted or graciously given to you. And notice what he says, that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer two things. Also suffer for his sake. Engage in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. Now this might seem silly or wrong. Why would God graciously give or grant us suffering? He’s a good God when he make my life easy. In fact, the Greek readers who read this in the Roman readers who would have read this, they would have been like, this is unthinkable. But in our Christian faith, we have a God who sees the bigger picture beyond. Just today. So here, this, this morning, both our salvation and our suffering. Listen, are gifts of grace from God. Many conversations I’ve had this morning and this week about people who are suffering in the church today. And many of them are suffering for the sake of Christ. Understand that that is a gift of grace from God. Now how can I possibly say that? How could Paul possibly say that our suffering is a gift of grace from God? Let me say it this way Christians suffering is evidence that you are living a life worthy of the gospel. When you are living a life that is worthy of the gospel, when you’re standing firm in unity in the church on His Word, when you’re striving to share your faith and you do it fearlessly and you suffer for that, that is evidence that you’re going down the right path. So don’t take suffering as a Christian, as a negative. It is a gift of grace to remind you and me that I am on the right path with the Lord. And if I could share just a couple verses we draw to a close in John’s Gospel. He gives such a beautiful picture and illustrates this. This is Jesus speaking to the disciples, one of the final times he speaks with them. Look at this in John 15 verse 18, if the world hates you, know that it is hated me before day to day. You. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world. But I chose you out of the world. Therefore the world hates you. And he says very famously, remember the word that I said to you, A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep your. So what’s Jesus saying when you suffer for my name’s sake? Two things. When you suffer for my name’s sake, that’s proof in evidence that you’ve been taken out of the world into a heavenly citizenship. It also proves that they hate me. The world hates Christians because they hate Christ. The world hates Christians because they hate the truth. The world hates Christians because of what Christ stood for. And so today, we need to be reminded, as Paul, try to remind the Philippines that if you suffer for your faith because you’re following Jesus 100%, you’re fully synced with Jesus, then guess what? That’s proof that you’re doing right. It is a blessed privilege to suffer for the sake of Christ, because it is a reminder that Christ chose you out of the world. Let that be a gift to you today. Let that gift to be to you today who are nervous about sharing your faith, or being canceled or being fired. You think God’s too small to know and to to work in that situation any way, but God can take that and remind you that you are doing what you need to do as a Christian, you are living a life that is worthy of the gospel. And that’s my final point tonight on This Morning, live a life that is worthy of it. Isn’t that what a Christian wants? That I want to live a life that’s worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s what I want. And if you can’t say that. It might be because you’re on the bench and you’re not in the game. Valley View Church we don’t need bench players. We need you in the game. We need you to live out your faith and share the gospel so that we can reach this out in with the gospel, so that in eternity we can see our neighbors, see your coworkers, see our family members side by side as we get to praise and glorify God for the rest of eternity. Get in the game. When I think about this, a person who’s lived their life worthy of the gospel, a couple people come to mind. And it just so happened that we’ve lost them recently, John MacArthur, who’s a pastor in California, famous pastor, famous writer. I say famous because he’s just well known, but he would not want to be famous. But he’s such a great he was a great teacher, a pastor, a husband, a father, and he lived his life unashamedly for the gospel and shared the gospel day in and day out and lived it worthily. And even on Thursday, I was preparing my message and the news hit that Voddie Baucham, who is also a pastor, passed away unexpectedly at 56 years old. He is a father, a husband. Thank you. I think he has 7 or 9 kids. Some of them are adopted pastor, teacher, speaker. He planted a seminary in Africa. This man is someone that I look to and say, that is a man who lived his life worthy of the gospel. But if I can share with just one more group of people because we can easily look at the famous and the people that are well known. But even right now, many, many may not know that in the Congo right now, every day Christians are being slaughtered, abducted and killed for their faith. And we think we live in a in a in a 21st century world. But that doesn’t really happen anymore. It does. We just don’t get media coverage on it. But the Congo is I mean, one day there’s 50 people slaughtered at a burnt out at a vigil in the summer in July. We’ve never heard about that. But these Christians, if you live out your faith in a place like the Congo, just by simply standing firm in a church, living out your faith, sharing the gospel and you’re not going to budge over it, you can be killed. In church, I want to live a life that’s worthy of the gospel. And I pray and wish that Valley View Church would want to be a church that is living a life worthy of the gospel, that it’s not about us, it’s ultimately about the South End, and this nation, and this world, to see them come to know Christ. So, church, will you live your life worthy of the gospel? Are you doing it? This is not an attempt to guilt you. This is an attempt to stir you up. It’s not to make you feel bad, it’s to make you get up. And like a coach is shouting out to his team is to get us motivated, to get in the game. So where are you at today church? Let’s pray. Father, thank you for your word and how clearly it tells us the marks of a life that is worthy of the gospel. And I pray God that we would meditate on that this week, that that would become more real in our hearts and our lives. I pray, father, that you would send us next door to the grocery store, to the to the ball field, to our workplace, with a heart that is set on leading people to Christ with gentleness and respect and truth and grace and love. And that God we would see this church be transformed by your grace and for your glory. Because we have a group of people that are in this church that aren’t sitting on the bench, but they’re getting in the game. I pray this morning that you would encourage us to do so. And for those who haven’t accepted Christ that are here today and are entertaining, the idea that it is the greatest decision that they can make today to follow Jesus, the very person who died on the cross for our sins, the debt we deserve. But God, you sent Jesus to die on the cross so that we didn’t have to. And by faith in Jesus placing our trust in him, that we can be saved. And I pray, father, that people would move today in light of the message in Jesus name, Amen.