To Live is Christ pt 4.

All right, everybody, we're going to go ahead and get started. If you want to go ahead and make your way to your seats. Happy Sunday. All right, guys, we're going to go ahead and get started. My name is Nermalis, and I'm the associate pastor here at New Culture. If we haven't met before, I'd love to connect with you, so make sure you grab me after service.

Today we are starting our third week on our sermon series out of the book of Philippians. "To live is Christ." So we're going to go ahead and jump straight into the scripture for today. It's Philippians chapter 1, verses 27 through 30. Let me read that for you:

Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ. Then whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith which is the good news. Don't be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved even by God himself. For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in this struggle together. You've seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I'm still in the midst of it.

Philippians 1:27-30

I'm going to give you our "so what" and our "now what" right at the top of the message. Our "so what" today is we are called to look like the kingdom we belong to. We are called to look like the kingdom we belong to. And our "now what" today is to live in a manner worthy of the gospel.

Living a worthy life

So I have four things in this chunk of scripture that I think Paul is communicating when he's saying what it looks like to live in a manner worthy of the gospel.

The first one is this: it's uncompromising. To live our lives in a manner that is worthy of the gospel is to live a life that is uncompromising. Because the gospel is our standard. And the gospel being our standard of life, our standard of living, means that it isn't something we can compromise on. In order to live a life worthy of the gospel, we can't compromise the gospel.

The scripture says, "Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven." Honestly, Paul in this portion kind of reminds me of myself when I worked with middle schoolers. I had a rule for them. These middle schoolers, like even when they're at their best behavior, they're still kind of demons. Like, they're just not the most well-behaved age group in the world, which is fine. We love them. But I had a rule and it was: if you're going to act out, act out when I'm here. Do not embarrass me and act out when there's a substitute here. If we're going to act foolish, act foolish for me. Just don't embarrass me in front of somebody else. When other people are here, I need them to know that Nerma taught you and that Nerma taught you well. You need to behave.

And the scripture says, "Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ. Whether I come and see you again or I only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith which is the good news." Paul is like, "Listen, you belong to Jesus now. Please behave like you belong to Jesus. Really simple." You are a citizen of heaven. Act like it. Right? Simple enough. That's his big main idea.

I think when we look at that, I think it's really significant that he starts the entire passage by saying, "Above all, live as citizens of heaven." Above all, live like who you are. Here's a reminder: your identity is that you are a citizen of heaven. So live and act like a citizen of heaven. My identity is not up for debate, so neither should my behavior. I'm a citizen of heaven, therefore I should live like a citizen of heaven. And it's not something that I can compromise. You need to be uncompromising in how you live. The standard for your life is to live like Jesus, and it doesn't matter where you are, who you are with, or how you feel that day. To live like Christ is the standard.

At the very heart of that statement is this idea of integrity. Steve Foster, the leader of St Aldate Church in Oxford, England, says this: "Integrity means an undivided life, a life without partitions. You can compromise your integrity by 1,000 small decisions. You can establish your integrity by 1,000 small decisions. Integrity means doing the right thing even when no one is watching. Integrity means doing the right thing even when everyone is watching."

We must be uncompromising in how we live. He's writing to these people in Philippi, and it's this reminder: "Hey, you live in the city of Philippi, but you've given your allegiance to the kingdom of God. You belong to the kingdom of God. And your primary job now is to live in a manner that represents the kingdom of God to the people whom you are around. And you cannot compromise that." To live in a manner worthy of the gospel is to live a life that is uncompromising. To live is Christ, period.

United as one body

The second thing that I see in this passage about what it means to live in a manner worthy of the gospel is to live a life that is united. United, because this is one body, one mission, and one gospel.

I really want to pause here for a second, because I get very strongly the feeling of not wanting to be associated with the church. When I say "the church," just for reference, I'm saying the capital C Church. I don't mean an individual building with a name. I don't mean First Assembly of Greenville in the corner. That's not what I'm saying. When I say the Church, I mean the people of God all over the world. This is the Church.

I get not really wanting to be associated with it sometimes. I get being hurt by it and all of those things, because most of my deepest wounds were inflicted by members of the Church. The same people that laid hands on me in prayer were the same people who hurt me. And the same people giving me prophetic words were the same people that talked about me. I get all the reasons to not want to be associated with it.

I get hating the way that the Church on big levels has not only neglected people of color, but has led the charge in oppressing them. I get hating that the Church has objectified, abused, and ignored women. I get hating that the Church has denied mental health. I get it. And to be really honest, I think Jesus gets it too.

Because the Jesus I read about in the Bible went up to the religious leaders in his time and called them whitewashed tombs, dead on the inside but pretty on the outside. He flipped tables in the temple when he thought that they were abusing the Church and being hypocritical. I get it, and it makes me angry, and I hate it, and I think Jesus hates it too. But here's the thing: we cannot divorce Christ from his bride. And the Church is his bride. He literally came here for his Church and for his people. That's literally why he came here. We cannot divorce Christ from his bride.

We cannot love Jesus and hate his Church. That's a paradox that can't exist. We are called to be united. Our heart needs to bleed for the Church. Instead of fighting against the Church, we have an obligation to make the Church look like Jesus. We are one body. You are the Church. You and your friends sitting at a table talking is the Church. Your community or your small group, that's the Church. The person sitting next to you, that's the Church. The person across the room that you don't really like, like, that's the Church. We are one body.

It's not just a matter of someone you share your beliefs with. It's not a matter of like, "Yeah, this is a person I go to the same organized religious organization with." No, it's not that simple. We are one body. That means that the other people who are members of the Church are not just people you associate with. They're part of who you are. We are literally one body. We are one organism in Christ. There's a shared experience to being a part of the body of Christ. And when we can't be united in that, we're literally ripping ourselves apart. And in doing so, we're standing directly in the way of the mission of spreading the gospel.

One body and one mission. "Fighting together for the faith," right. That's what Paul says here. That we would be standing together and fighting together for the faith, the good news. We cannot do that if we are competing with each other. We spend so much time trying to outdo one another and we fight against each other, undermining the entire role and function of the Church. And therefore actively working against the spread of the gospel.

Real conversations that I've had with people, where I just be like, "Holy Spirit, control my face, the musculature in my face, because I can do it. It has to be you, Lord." I heard people say, "I've been trying to get so-and-so to come to church for months. They invited them and they said yes right away." Why are you mad that they said yes to coming to church? Like actually, why are you upset right now? And "Well, so-and-so had this event and so many people showed up," all said with a really strong attitude. It's really crazy how we're upset that people are being reached for the gospel. We have one mission, and that is to fight for and contend for the gospel, not fight with each other over our egos.

One body, one mission, one gospel. We only have one message. Like, every Sunday. In case you're curious, it's just about finding another way to communicate the exact same message. That's Jesus gave up the splendor of heaven to be like us, to be with us. He lived like us, was tempted like us, and was wounded like us. He lived a sinless life because we couldn't. He submitted to death on a cross as a consequence of sins he did not commit so that you and I would not have to. He resurrected and conquered death so that we could live without bondage and without shame and fully be alive with him. Salvation is found in Jesus. That's the only gospel. That's the only message.

It is the gospel that makes us one body. It is the gospel that is our one mission. And the gospel is what unites us, and it's what we have to be united in.

Unwavering faith

So: an uncompromising life, a united life, and to live a life worthy of the gospel of Christ, we have to live an unwavering life. Unwavering. This is worth fighting for. The scripture says, "Don't be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved even by God himself."

Paul says that part of conducting yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel is not backing down. Let me be very frank. When you start walking in integrity, when you start walking towards what God has for you, and you start following his will, there will be opposition. It's not cotton candy, strawberries and cream, and all the other stuff. I'm not the person that like every time something happens, I'm like, "It was the devil." Like, no, it was my poor time management skills. You know, sometimes it's on you. That's okay. But there is an enemy, and he doesn't want you living in a manner worthy of the gospel and expanding the kingdom of God.

And to completely negate that is going to leave you vulnerable. There is an enemy, and he has every interest in interfering in God's plan for your life and interfering with you living a life of unity with the Church. If you are going to live a life of unity with the Church, if you're going to live an uncompromised life, you will have to be unwavering, because the enemy is going to try to derail you.

If you've been on Facebook ever in your life, people have really weird hills that they're willing to die on. I've seen the most insane arguments break out over, "I eat steak and you're a vegan." You know what I'm saying? Everybody has their thing. I just want you to know: this is the hill worth dying on. If you're going to stake something in the ground and you're going to stay there and do your thing, this is the hill to do it on. It's the gospel.

Living in a manner worthy of the gospel means when you have every reason to compromise, you do not do so. You bend and you stand in continued confidence in the face of a very real enemy, because this is worth fighting for. The freedom that Christ brings, that you've experienced, is worth fighting for the person next to you to experience too. If there's something that you're going to be stubborn about, if there's something that you're going to take some hits for, if there's something that you should dig your heels in the ground and be unmoved about, it is Jesus.

Unconditional living

The fourth thing I see in this passage that Paul tells us about living a life worthy of the gospel of Christ is to live it unconditionally. Unconditionally, even in suffering.

You know what I think is so crazy? When Paul gives us these points to live by, he decides to wrap it up by saying, "Now do this in the midst of your worst situations." Live an uncompromised life when you're at your lowest. Be united with the people around you when they're the people you like the least. And like, live this life worthy of the gospel of Christ when your life feels so far from the gospel of Christ.

Living in a manner worthy of the gospel means being united, uncompromising, unwavering, and doing it all unconditionally. It's easy to be united in homogeneous circles. It's easy to be united with people who look like you and think like you and grew up like you and have the financial circumstances you do and eat the food you do. That's easy. Be united with someone who is actively the complete opposite of you. That's a little harder.

It is really easy to be uncompromising when you like the standard and you set the standard. But what about when the right thing to do is going to make your life more difficult and the right thing to do is inconvenient to you? It's a little harder to be uncompromising. It's really easy to do these things when they're simple. It's easy to be unwavering when everyone's fighting for what you're fighting for and we're all suffering together. But what about when you're the only person in the room? Can you still be unwavering then? Can you live a life worthy of the gospel when you're in pain, when you're confused, when you're mad, when it feels like prayer isn't being answered, when it's not the easiest option?

Can you live a life worthy of the gospel if it's not conditional on your circumstance? My feelings of being hurt, my insecurities being triggered, me being under a lot of stress might be reasons for me behaving poorly, but fun fact, they don't justify me behaving poorly. It is my responsibility to live a life worthy of the gospel of Christ, even when my circumstances make it difficult to do so. The key to living like Christ is to do it when it's hard. It's literally at the center of it.

On the cross, Jesus responded by saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He responded in mercy and grace for those who were crucifying him as they did it. United. Uncompromised. Unwavering. Unconditionally.

Reflection and closing prayer

I invite you guys to stand up on your feet. The worship team is going to lead us in just a quick moment. Elena's going to lead us in just a super quick moment. There's going to be keys, it's going to be really pretty. But in that time, I just want to encourage you to take a few moments to just reflect.

United. Uncompromised. Unwavering. Unconditionally. Living a life worthy of the gospel of Christ is actually less about what you do and how you behave. That's why I love that when Paul's talking about how to live a life worthy of the gospel of Christ, he doesn't say, "Don't sin." He doesn't give you like a list of like, "Here are like the top ten things that you should no longer do and cut out of your life." He really just says, "The gospel, yeah, that should be like the center of everything you do and that should dictate everything you do. And here's the fruit of that."

Because it's less about your behavior and what you do and why you're doing this. It's more about inviting Jesus to come in and saying, "Jesus, I need you in this area of my life. Come help me live this life like you." So we're just going to take a moment to reflect. United. Uncompromised. Unwavering. Unconditionally.

And stop and say, "Okay, where am I not doing so hot? Am I really good at being a believer when I'm around other believers and maybe not so good about it when I'm with other people? Am I willing? Is this a hill I'm willing to die on? If it came to it and it was, 'Do I stand up for what I believe in or do I not?' Can I?" Whatever it is that feels like maybe I'm not doing so great in this area. Maybe unity is really hard for you. Maybe you're like, "Church people are weird." Or maybe, "No, actually, the Church really really hurt me and I don't know if I can be a part of this." The only fix to that is Jesus.

It's not actually just deciding I'm going to do this. It's deciding to say, "Jesus, I give this to you. Please come help me." So we're going to take a moment to reflect on that and to surrender that to Jesus and to invite him to come help us in those areas.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you because we don't have to do this on our own. You don't have that charge on us. Our biggest mission is to seek you. And as we seek you, you transform us to be more and more like you. So Lord, I invite you right now to just come and do what only you can do. Your Holy Spirit, highlight areas of our lives that we need to invite you to come into. Give us the courage and boldness and the confidence that you're a loving God that wants us to be more like you, wants us to be closer to you. And that we might invite you into the spaces with us, that we might look like the kingdom we belong to. United. Uncompromising. Unwavering. Unconditionally. Just like you. In your holy name I pray, Amen.