Let your conduct be worthy.
Let how you behave be worthy.
Are we living a worthy life of the gospel?
Welcome back to a deeper dive in Philippians.
And in this episode, we'll be looking at chapter one from verse 21 to 30.
But for now, let's just focus on verse 21 to verse 26.
That is probably Paul's most famous verse, and everybody can quote that.
I'm pretty sure if you're in Sunday school, when they ask you to quote a verse,
that's probably the one you went to.
That one is probably second to Jesus wept because it's so easy to remember.
Having a desire to depart from and be with Christ, which is far better.
Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.
And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all
for your progress and joy in faith, that you're rejoicing for me,
maybe more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.
And let's just look at verse 21 because it's such a powerful verse.
There's so much in there, and especially in the context of the book of Philippians,
how Paul is just talking about surrender and how he's living his life on the altar.
It just makes this verse even more powerful.
To understand the impact of this statement, you must know that he's in prison.
So when he says, for me to live is Christ,
he's saying the only reason why he will choose to keep on living is for the
cause of Jesus Christ, it doesn't benefit him.
He only benefits Christ.
Everything in him wants to quit and die.
But the only reason why he's still alive is for Christ.
And in verse 24 and 26, he explains why.
And this is what they say in verse 24 and 26.
Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.
And being confident of this,
I know that I shall remain and continue
with you all for your progress and the joy of faith that you're rejoicing for me,
maybe more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.
At this time in the history of the church,
he's probably one of the few fathers in the faith.
Most of the apostles have been killed off by the Roman emperor.
He knows that he has a lot of people still counting on him.
He's not just out here doing his own thing.
He's not retired.
He's still advancing the kingdom.
This is such a powerful reality because he isn't gaining anything personally,
but just fulfilling the will of his master.
For him to live is Christ.
The only reason I'm still around is for Christ.
That's another way he's saying that.
Look at verse 22.
And I'm going to read this from the complete Jewish Bible.
But if by living on in my body, I can do fruitful work,
then I don't know which to choose.
Look at the dilemma.
And he's genuinely concerned, what should I choose?
Should I choose something that impacts me personally?
Being in chains, not being allowed to leave, being chained to a Roman soldier.
Should I choose that or choose to be with my Lord and Savior?
To be in heaven, to be where the sun never sets, to be where there's no sorrow.
That is such a...
Just thinking about that just makes me see how much this man loved the Lord.
The fact that that was an actual question, because for me,
if I'm going through a bad time and I have an option to go back to heaven,
oh man, I'm out.
Bye.
But he truly loves the Lord and he loves the people of the Lord.
And he's wondering, what should I do?
And like I said in an earlier episode,
he goes on to write four letters in prison to show that his work is not done.
He adapted to his surrounding and thank God he was in prison
so that we can get the letters, all the epistles.
Because I love those books and I'm sure you love them too.
The latter part of verse 21 is what he truly wants.
He wants to die because when he dies, he's gaining the Lord.
He's gaining heaven.
That's what he wants.
And when he dies, he'll go to heaven,
see everything that he's accomplished in heaven.
That is what he wants.
He's choosing to stay here because his master wants him to,
because the Lord wants him to.
In verse 21 is the equivalent of Jesus saying, not my will but your will.
It seems like we will all have those moments where our commitments to the Lord will be
tested.
How many of us today have been challenged by Holy Spirit to step out and do something
in faith and then we let our fears get in the way.
See this is Paul's gut check time.
What are you going to do?
Are you going to come in heaven or are you going to stay and endure the suffering that
your calling demands so that my kingdom can be advanced?
Same thing with Jesus when he's in Gethsemane crying and blood comes out.
Saying, not my will but let your will be done.
We will all experience those moments.
And what are we going to do?
Are we going to say, you know what, I'm going to give in to my fear.
I'm not going to go and talk to that person Lord.
What if the word you give me is wrong?
What if they are rude to me?
I'm not going to do that.
Or are we going to step out in faith and embrace embarrassment if that's what happens.
Embrace whatever comes because we are stepping out in faith and doing what he wants us to
do.
Jesus and Paul were deciding between life and death situations and they still chose
to submit their will to the Lord.
They still chose to say yes in spite of what their answers meant to their physical well
being.
We are saying that to condemn us.
Please hear my heart.
I am saying this so that we can see the standard that the Lord has for us.
That's the standard.
So don't be condemned.
I've done that many times when the Lord told me to go talk to this person and I was afraid.
I've done that.
None of us are perfect.
But we see the standard that Paul and Jesus set for us.
Remember what Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ.
While Christ laid it all on the altar, Paul did the same.
And so we should follow in like manner.
See one thing I learned, and this is in my recent journey with the Lord.
We can grow in our surrender.
The Lord is not going to start you off by choosing a life or death situation.
He will grow you.
He might ask you to surrender 10 minutes of your time to spend with him.
And that's how most, actually for the most part, that's how he starts.
He asks you, could you just spend time with me?
Be awake or say no to TV or whatever for 10, five minutes.
And then he goes from there to maybe talking to someone at the mall.
It changes.
But then as you grow in your surrender, what's happening is you're growing in your trust
for him.
You're growing in your dependability for him because every time you say yes to his request,
he comes through, it gives you faith.
And the more faith you have, the more yes you can say.
And when he asked me to move from Cincinnati to Colorado Springs with no job lined up,
not knowing anybody, by this point in my walk, I've seen the Lord come through in so many
different ways that I knew he'll come through.
I've never done this before, but I know him.
He's faithful.
He's God.
And so my surrender grew and he took me through the stages.
He will lead you in surrendering to get you to the ultimate goal, which is to be completely
surrendered to his will for your life.
That's the goal.
And you see Paul in the book of Philippians exercising that.
This is a man who's ready to go, who's ready to die for the Lord.
Okay.
Now let's move to verse 27 and to 30.
Then let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see
you or I'm absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit with one
mind striving together for the faith of the gospel and not in any way terrified by your
adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation and that from God.
For to you, it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but
also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict, which you saw in me.
Now you hear is in me.
And just that first verse, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Let your conduct be worthy.
Let how you behave be worthy.
Are we living a worthy life of the gospel?
Because I think in today's time, because the gospel is so preached, it's everywhere.
And some people say over preached.
It's everywhere.
You go on YouTube, you go on TV, find the gospel preached everywhere.
I think we don't understand the price that was paid for the gospel.
Because anybody who just, anybody can go and preach.
The preaching and the.
Living and not lining up.
Remember, Christian means Christ-like.
That's what it means to be Christ-like.
Are we living a Christ-like life?
Because that's what it means to be worthy of the gospel.
For us to live a Christ-like life, we have lost what it means to be a Christian.
It is more of a terminology today than a reality for many.
Because even when they do all these reports that are saying there's like
a billion of a billion Christians in the world, and like America has so many
Christians, but then you look at the society and you're like, I'd like to
find these billion Christians because our confession is not lining up with our living.
And Paul goes on to explain what our conduct should be.
And he lists three things.
He says, stand fast in one spirit, talking about unity.
Election season is when you truly see if you're standing fast in one spirit.
And for the most part, I don't really think we do.
But that's a conduct worthy of the gospel.
The next thing he says this, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.
With one mind, striving together.
I don't think that we have to agree all theologically, and I don't think we ever will.
I mean, even you see in the times of Paul, him and Peter, they had a complete
disagreement of how to live the life.
That is part of life.
We're all different.
We all see different things.
And that's okay.
That's beautiful.
But are we agreeing on the tenets of our faith?
There are some tenets that we have to agree on, like Jesus.
He's not just a prophet.
He's not just a man.
He is God in the flesh.
That is what differentiates our faith from other faiths.
That Jesus is God in the form of man.
And so there's so many other tenets that we all have to agree on, but our heart should
be one mind striving together.
That's our goal.
And when the election season comes, when all these things happen, that should never,
ever interfere with our beliefs.
Those are just things that we're doing on the earth, but we have to remember, we are
spirit beings.
We serve a God who is a kingdom.
That's our main thing.
The third thing that Paul says is not being terrified by our adversaries.
Not being terrified by our adversaries.
This is some of the conduct worthy of a Christian.
Not being afraid.
We've been so afraid of what the world says that we sometimes give up our faith.
We're sometimes so scared that, and they're not going to kill us.
They'll just slander us.
But that is too fearful for us.
I mean, these believers in this time when Paul was writing this letter, death was on
the line.
It was not an ideology.
It was true.
If you are known to be a Christian, you will probably be killed.
And he's telling them the conduct of a believer worthy of the gospel is not to be
afraid of your adversaries.
And that's a standard that we all supposed to abide by.
These are the qualities of a believer.
And how far we've fallen from that.
But once again, I'm not saying this to condemn you.
I'm saying this to raise our standards.
We have to step up to the plate.
The latter part of verse 28 is very intriguing to me.
And I want to read this in two different translations.
I'm going to read it in the Complete Jewish Bible and the New Living Translation.
The Complete Jewish Bible says this.
This will be for them an indication that they are headed for destruction and you for
deliverance.
And this is from God.
The NLT says this.
This will be a sign to them that they're going to be destroyed, but that you are going
to be saved even by God himself.
These different translations show a different mentality that is expected of us
Christians. That Holy Spirit, what Holy Spirit is conveying here is that when we
conduct ourselves in a godly manner, it will be an indictment to the unbelievers.
Our godly conduct, despite what the unbelievers do to us, will be their demise.
The true conduct of a believer is that we are ready to put everything on the altar for
God's sake.
And I'm pretty sure if you go into history and read the Christians who have been
thrown to the lions, that they will still worship, they will still sing.
And people like Nero and other people watching, they will stand there so amazed and
confused. How are these people being eaten by a lion still worshiping this God?
Because they were never afraid of the adversary.
They went down believing that God will save them.
Whether that means dying and going to him or him appearing and stopping the whole
situation. They were willing to trust him to death.
And that's the standard that we as believers need to live by.
Look at this verse in Revelation 12 11.
was tied to a willingness to die. Our conduct should always be God first
regardless of the consequences. That's the conduct worthy of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. And verse 29 is probably one of those verses that we as
Christians hide from. Listen to this verse in the New Living Translation.
For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the
privilege of suffering for Him. We love the first part. We have the privilege of
trusting in Christ. Yes Jesus! Pompoms out, everything. You have the privilege of
trusting in Him. But also, and then we hide that part. We never share that. We
just read that like, if this is how a lot of us read this verse. For you have been
given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of
suffering for Him. That's how we read that. The first part is just as important as
the last part. We have the privilege of suffering for Him. Our believing in
Christ also comes with our suffering for Christ. Just as it's a privilege to
believe in Him, it is also a privilege to suffer for Him. Whatever that means. In
Paul's case, prison, lashings, and all those things is listed. For us it might
be different. For believers in the in the east, in the Middle East, death. For us
it could be, you don't know. For as long you're willing to do it, that is what
God requires of you. And so I just pray that that's gonna be our heart. That we
are willing to suffer for Him, regardless of the consequences, and choose to live a
life that is worthy of the gospel of Christ. Salvation is not free. I want you
to remember that. It's not free. It cost Jesus his life, and will cost you your
life. And that's what we're in verse 29 is talking about. We have to accept the
privilege of suffering for Him. Amen.