WEBVTT 00:00:00.940 --> 00:00:04.700 Well, again, let me welcome you. Those of you who are coming back, good to see you again. 00:00:04.919 --> 00:00:09.800 Those of you who are here for the first time, welcome to you. My name is Tommy. I'm a pastor 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:16.539 here at Church of the Advent. And tonight we are going to continue a series. We had to 00:00:16.539 --> 00:00:24.260 take a break last week. I got deathly ill. It's one of the only times I've had to miss 00:00:24.260 --> 00:00:30.820 church. Whatever I got, I hope and pray you don't get it. But my family then got sick, 00:00:31.020 --> 00:00:35.740 so that's why they're not here tonight. So they told me to tell you hello. But Laura's 00:00:35.740 --> 00:00:42.340 currently laid up on the couch. But for whatever reason, when I was laying on my back for those 00:00:42.340 --> 00:00:51.060 few days, I found myself reading health blogs. And, you know, just kind of wondering if there 00:00:51.060 --> 00:00:57.520 are things that I could do to be healthier and to not get sick like that ever again. And I came 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:08.180 across this blog that said, here are ten visible signs that you are healthy. So the idea is that 00:01:08.180 --> 00:01:12.280 you can look at somebody or look at yourself in the mirror and not really know anything about them, 00:01:12.340 --> 00:01:18.240 but use these signs. And you can tell just by looking whether or not they're healthy. And it's 00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:23.579 interesting because that pertains a bit to what we're going to be talking about tonight at the end 00:01:23.579 --> 00:01:30.579 of chapter 1 in the book of Philippians, the last few verses of chapter 1, beginning in verse 27. 00:01:31.079 --> 00:01:34.759 Paul, if you may remember, if you're familiar, you've been coming the past few weeks, 00:01:35.139 --> 00:01:40.000 Paul is writing this letter and he's in prison, and he's facing the very realistic possibility of his 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:47.879 own execution. And he loves these Philippians, and he's wanting more than anything to see them grow in 00:01:47.879 --> 00:02:01.480 their faith. And so this section that we come to, we see that Paul lists some characteristics of what a 00:02:01.480 --> 00:02:06.719 healthy, flourishing faith looks like. So just like there are visible signs of physical health, 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:14.259 Paul's saying there are visible signs of spiritual health. He says, so in the event that I die and 00:02:14.259 --> 00:02:18.740 that I don't see you again, this is the kind of faith I hope you have. And he even says, 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:24.579 only let. That's the beginning of the passage that we're looking at, the word only. It's his 00:02:24.579 --> 00:02:33.620 way of saying, if nothing else, at least I hope this is true. And so these characteristics of a healthy, 00:02:33.620 --> 00:02:42.280 vibrant, flourishing, joy-filled faith versus a stagnating faith, a faith that is life-giving versus 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:48.360 a faith that is soul-sucking and dead. Here are the characteristics. One, it's a public faith. 00:02:49.719 --> 00:02:59.379 Two, it's a communal faith. And three, it's a costly faith. So these are the three things, public, 00:02:59.379 --> 00:03:04.180 communal, and costly. And some of us are here and we're Christians, and you may think of this as a 00:03:04.180 --> 00:03:10.019 kind of diagnostic tool as you think about your own spiritual life. Some of you are here and you're 00:03:10.019 --> 00:03:13.759 not Christians, maybe not sure what you believe. I would encourage you to think about perhaps the 00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:20.939 Christians in your life and to think, if these characteristics defined their faith, would you 00:03:20.939 --> 00:03:28.680 consider the things they believe in a different light? How would this make you think differently about 00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:34.400 the claims that the Christian faith makes? Let's pray for the Lord to lead us as we open to Paul's 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:41.560 letter. Lord, we do know that on our own, we're just looking at ink and paper. These are just words 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:49.860 on a page. And at best, we may have some human wisdom, some jokes, some niceties. But Lord, our real 00:03:49.860 --> 00:03:56.060 hope tonight is not to hear from people, from human beings, but actually to hear from you. And I 00:03:56.060 --> 00:04:01.280 desperately need to hear from you. We all do. So we pray that even as you're present here with us, 00:04:01.319 --> 00:04:05.719 so you would speak, that these written words would reveal to us the living word of your Son, 00:04:05.780 --> 00:04:12.000 Jesus Christ. And it's in His name that we pray. Amen. So the first thing that we see Paul lists, 00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:20.000 characteristic of a growing, flourishing, vibrant faith, is this. It's a public faith. It's a public 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:26.800 faith. He says, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Now, I want to say 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:31.399 right off the bat, what this sounds like is saying is, I hope that you're living lives that are worthy 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:39.060 of the gospel, as in I hope you're good enough. But most of us know the gospel by its very nature 00:04:39.060 --> 00:04:45.120 is the claim that God gives people things that we're not worthy of. So we know that that couldn't 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:52.459 be what this means. And in fact, it's not. The phrase manner of life is actually a political, 00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:57.920 in the Greek, it's a political reference. It comes from a word, the root of which is polis, 00:04:58.180 --> 00:05:05.019 from which we get politics. And this word really means exercising your citizenship. 00:05:06.699 --> 00:05:12.819 So it helps to understand that Philippi was a Roman colony, and they were very proud of this. 00:05:12.819 --> 00:05:19.500 They were very proud of the fact that they were a Roman colony, that if you were a Philippian, 00:05:19.599 --> 00:05:26.100 it meant that your name was listed in the membership roster in Rome. And you spoke the 00:05:26.100 --> 00:05:31.519 language, you spoke Latin, and you dressed like a Roman, and you ate Roman food and observed Roman 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:37.000 customs and worshipped Roman gods, and you had all the privileges and the responsibilities of a Roman 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:44.540 citizen. Which meant, in effect, that Philippi was like a little Rome. It was a miniature Rome. 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:55.040 And so Paul is saying, as proud as you are and as aware as you are of your Roman citizenship, 00:05:56.639 --> 00:06:02.860 even deeper than that, you are citizens of the kingdom of God. You're a citizen in God's kingdom. 00:06:02.860 --> 00:06:09.460 And so he's saying, you, Philippians, or those of us here who are followers of Jesus, as we're 00:06:09.460 --> 00:06:15.060 gathered in this church that we rent on a rainy Sunday evening, he says it may not look like it 00:06:15.060 --> 00:06:19.980 to you, it may not feel like it to you, but this is a miniature version of the kingdom of God. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:27.580 Those of you who belong to Jesus, your name is written in the citizenship roster. You have all of 00:06:27.579 --> 00:06:31.659 the rights and the privileges and the responsibilities of a citizen of the kingdom. 00:06:33.859 --> 00:06:42.180 Live lives, then, that reflect that faithfully. That's what he's saying. So the role of an ambassador 00:06:42.180 --> 00:06:49.379 is what? Those of you who work in government, the role of an ambassador is to live in a foreign country, 00:06:49.379 --> 00:06:55.719 country, but to represent their own country as well as they possibly can. And they do that largely 00:06:55.719 --> 00:07:01.579 by garnering goodwill and developing good relationships with leaders in the country in 00:07:01.579 --> 00:07:08.100 which they live. But they do that faithfully representing the interests of their country 00:07:08.100 --> 00:07:14.920 in places where they are not citizens. And that's what Paul is saying we're called to do. Live lives 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:23.819 that reflect your true citizenship. Miroslav Volf is a professor at Yale. Some of you may be familiar 00:07:23.819 --> 00:07:29.319 with his work. He wrote a book recently called A Public Faith. And he's written a lot of great things, 00:07:29.420 --> 00:07:33.720 but public faith is really good. If you're looking for a good summer read, it might be worth picking 00:07:33.720 --> 00:07:42.720 up. But he talks about the two primary malfunctions that occur when faith and culture meet. He says, 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:49.500 one, the one way that faith goes wrong when it tries to engage culture is coerciveness, and the other is 00:07:49.500 --> 00:07:58.340 idleness. So coerciveness, coerciveness is when people try to force their religion to be the only 00:07:58.340 --> 00:08:05.140 religion in society, the dominant religion, forcing, we want all buildings to have the Ten Commandments, 00:08:05.560 --> 00:08:11.480 that kind of thing. When any religion says, this is going to be the only religion in society, 00:08:11.480 --> 00:08:19.439 that's coerciveness. Volf says there's a whole host of problems. Christians, chiefly, among all people, 00:08:19.540 --> 00:08:23.480 should be concerned with any form of coerciveness because that's not a reflection of the kingdom of 00:08:23.480 --> 00:08:29.300 God. But he says on the other hand, and I don't think I have to make that case here. I think we 00:08:29.300 --> 00:08:35.300 probably mostly agree on that. But he says the same risk exists on the other end of the spectrum 00:08:35.299 --> 00:08:44.039 with idleness. And by idleness, he means a faith that is so privatized, that is so hidden, that is so 00:08:44.039 --> 00:08:50.199 personalized, that it really has very little bearing on your life. And nobody who doesn't know you really 00:08:50.199 --> 00:08:56.740 well is going to have any idea that you even subscribe to such a faith. And I think that's 00:08:56.740 --> 00:09:01.519 much more our tendency. If you're anything like me, the tendency is to compartmentalize your faith. 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:06.980 I have my job. I have my friends from college. I have my friends from grad school. I have my work 00:09:06.980 --> 00:09:11.379 friends. And they're all kind of separate. And I have my friends from church, and I have my kind of 00:09:11.379 --> 00:09:18.299 church life. And other than those kind of unintended overlaps where you're out with friends from one 00:09:18.299 --> 00:09:23.299 group and friends from another group kind of show up at the bar, and you have that moment of which 00:09:23.299 --> 00:09:29.960 me am I going to be in this moment? Other than that, we hope that they kind of don't really 00:09:29.960 --> 00:09:34.879 intersect too much. And most of us, I think, are really good at just sort of swimming between 00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:40.000 multiple versions of ourself. And sometimes we're not even really sure who we really are. 00:09:40.860 --> 00:09:47.320 And what this would say is, is that growing in our faith means moving away from compartmentalization 00:09:47.320 --> 00:09:54.540 and toward integration, where your faith begins to permeate and inform all of the spheres 00:09:54.539 --> 00:10:03.019 of your life. Another way of putting it is this. Wolf is sort of saying this, that we're not called 00:10:03.019 --> 00:10:09.679 to be culture warriors. We're not called to fight the culture war. By the way, Christians lost a long 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:18.319 time ago. We're not called to fight the culture war, nor are we called to be wallflowers. We are called 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:24.200 to be witnesses. And there's a big difference between being a warrior, being a wallflower, and 00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:30.379 being a witness, someone whose very life points to the truth of the gospel. So for instance, think 00:10:30.379 --> 00:10:37.560 about your job. I mean, for most of us, other than, you know, our job, if you could pick one thing where 00:10:37.560 --> 00:10:42.540 you spend most of your time and energy, even those of us who are married and have families, probably our 00:10:42.539 --> 00:10:49.839 jobs get the best of us, if we're honest. Our jobs, whether we know it or not, your ordinary day-to-day 00:10:49.839 --> 00:10:55.399 is a form of public faith. That's not just something that's true of people who work for the church. 00:10:56.480 --> 00:10:59.279 Your job is a form, it's an expression of faith. 00:11:01.899 --> 00:11:08.120 People make inferences about what we believe based on how they see us conduct ourselves, how they see us 00:11:08.120 --> 00:11:13.580 operate. So the little opportunities that you have on a daily basis, just to interact with people, 00:11:14.299 --> 00:11:20.940 to build community, or to shun community, to meet needs, to serve others, to show little kindnesses, 00:11:21.519 --> 00:11:26.259 the choice you make either to hold a grudge and get revenge or to forgive, 00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:32.560 the choices you make to throw people under the bus to advance yourself, 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:40.759 or to maybe even take a hit, to avoid doing something that conflicts with your morals. 00:11:41.939 --> 00:11:47.379 These are sometimes hard choices, sometimes very easy choices, but in all these small, 00:11:47.779 --> 00:11:53.500 tiny, seemingly insignificant ways, we are actually manifesting a public faith. We're demonstrating 00:11:53.500 --> 00:11:59.539 through all these little things what really matters to us, what we really believe about the world. 00:11:59.539 --> 00:12:05.899 Abraham Kuyper, one of my favorite thinkers on this topic, says this, and forgive the gendered 00:12:05.899 --> 00:12:11.240 language he was writing a little while ago, wherever man may stand, whatever he may do, 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:18.799 to whatever he may apply his hand in agriculture, in commerce, and in industry, or his mind, or the 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:26.759 world of art and science, he is, and whatsoever it may be, constantly standing before the face of his God. 00:12:26.759 --> 00:12:33.899 He's employed in the service of his God. He has strictly to obey his God, and above all, 00:12:34.139 --> 00:12:41.340 he has to aim at the glory of his God. So, he's saying this, just by the sheer fact that you are 00:12:41.340 --> 00:12:50.939 at work, that God has placed you there, that you doing your job and doing it well, that that in itself 00:12:50.939 --> 00:12:56.120 is a way to glorify God, because God designed you, he wired you to work in politics, or in business, 00:12:56.120 --> 00:13:01.399 or in agriculture, or in whatever you do. He wired you, and when you do what he made you to do, it brings 00:13:01.399 --> 00:13:08.340 him glory. You know, that's why Dorothy Sayers famously said, the only Christian job is a job well 00:13:08.340 --> 00:13:15.519 done. There is no Christian job versus secular job. Christians, whatever job they have, glorify God simply 00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:23.259 by being excellent at what they do. That's something we don't often reflect on. So, for most of us, our job is one 00:13:23.259 --> 00:13:28.539 of the central ministries that God has given us. It's great to volunteer. It's great to mentor. It's 00:13:28.539 --> 00:13:32.819 great to serve at soup kitchens. It's great to do all that stuff. Do that. But don't forget that your 00:13:32.819 --> 00:13:39.039 primary ministry is probably your job. That's where you're going to have potentially the most impact 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:47.319 on the people around you. Every day our lives are making implicit statements about our beliefs. So, 00:13:47.320 --> 00:13:53.240 the question is this, do you have a public faith? Are you aware of that? A way of thinking about it 00:13:53.240 --> 00:13:59.700 is this, having a public faith in the way Paul means, means living our lives in ways that provoke 00:13:59.700 --> 00:14:08.120 questions only the gospel can answer. Right? So, the gospel is best presented in the form of an answer 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:13.820 to a question. People look at it, and they look at what you're doing, and they look at the choices that 00:14:13.820 --> 00:14:17.800 you're making, and it doesn't make sense, and they say, how can you explain this? Why would you do 00:14:17.800 --> 00:14:24.379 that? You know, I knew one guy who was working toward partnership in a law firm, and he realized 00:14:24.379 --> 00:14:29.600 that he was never seeing his family. He was never seeing his wife. He was never seeing his kids. 00:14:29.980 --> 00:14:35.300 He had abandoned them. He was working, you know, 90 hours, 100 hours a week, sleeping at his office, 00:14:35.300 --> 00:14:40.520 and he finally realized that this isn't what God had called him to do, and he realized that if he went to 00:14:40.519 --> 00:14:45.639 half time, he could still make enough money to cover all of their needs financially, and so he, 00:14:45.799 --> 00:14:51.259 they made a decision for him to get off the partner track and to cut his hours back so that he could be 00:14:51.259 --> 00:14:57.679 with us, and everybody said, you're insane. See, that provokes questions, and the answer to those 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:05.679 questions has to do with a God, a pearl of great price, a way of life that we believe is more good, 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:11.839 and more beautiful, and more true. So do we have a public faith? Does your life provoke those kinds 00:15:11.839 --> 00:15:16.719 of questions? When people look at the way you spend your money, your time, the way you deal with people 00:15:16.719 --> 00:15:23.159 who disagree with you, the way you handle criticism, right? Do you, do you defend and justify your actions, 00:15:23.699 --> 00:15:29.299 you know, teach people to never criticize you, or do you recognize that we're all sinners in need of 00:15:29.299 --> 00:15:33.719 forgiveness by God, and you probably did screw up, and you should at least be willing to consider 00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:36.100 the truth. 00:15:38.899 --> 00:15:42.480 Is our faith publicly visible? That's the first thing that Paul says. 00:15:43.639 --> 00:15:48.060 Now, the next point makes sense if you understand that, because if you actually think about what this 00:15:48.060 --> 00:15:54.160 looks like, you realize it's hard. It's really hard, and so Paul says you can't do it alone, 00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:58.740 you need other people, and that's why the second aspect is this, it has to be a communal faith. 00:15:58.740 --> 00:16:05.940 You need, you need other people to share this burden with. He says in verse 27, whether I come 00:16:05.940 --> 00:16:13.299 and see you, or I'm absent, meaning dead, I hope that I may hear that you're standing firm in one 00:16:13.299 --> 00:16:18.639 spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. It's a beautiful passage, 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:26.179 and this is a vision, this is a vision of Christians who are together, they're united, they're of one 00:16:26.179 --> 00:16:31.259 mind and one spirit, and they're actively engaged. There's no wallflowers, there's no onlookers, there's 00:16:31.259 --> 00:16:40.480 no kind of just passive recipients. Everybody is engaged for the sake of the gospel, and there's an 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:49.680 emphasis here on unity, right, on being of one mind. Now, at Church of the Advent, we, when it comes to 00:16:49.680 --> 00:16:53.800 people being involved in our church and becoming members of our church, we talk about the difference 00:16:53.800 --> 00:16:58.659 between the essentials of the Christian faith and the distinctives of the Christian faith, 00:16:59.220 --> 00:17:06.920 right? So we focus on, we try to focus on the essentials of the Christian faith, the gospel. What does it 00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:11.800 mean to have a relationship with God, and what does it mean to live in light of that relationship 00:17:11.800 --> 00:17:20.740 faithfully? That's the gospel. And then we have all kinds of distinctives. I'm wearing a white robe. 00:17:20.900 --> 00:17:26.380 Why? Because we're Anglicans. That's a distinctive, but we don't really emphasize that. We have beliefs 00:17:26.380 --> 00:17:32.519 and stances on things that other faithful Christians would disagree on, right? And there are lots of issues 00:17:32.519 --> 00:17:36.900 throughout history of the church that Christians, faithful followers of Jesus, have disagreed 00:17:36.900 --> 00:17:42.400 on. Church polity, how do you govern a church? What should worship look like? Should we baptize 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:47.940 only believing adults or also babies? These are things that faithful Christians have and will 00:17:47.940 --> 00:17:53.580 disagree on. Scripture is not totally clear on these issues. Those would be called distinctives. 00:17:54.100 --> 00:17:58.720 And so we separate between essentials and distinctives, the hope being that if we can have unity in the 00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:06.880 essentials, then we can pursue like-mindedness with charity and love and respect in the distinctives. 00:18:07.800 --> 00:18:12.019 Right? But one of the things, just to be clear, here's the thing. When we say that an issue is a 00:18:12.019 --> 00:18:17.740 distinctive, it's not the same as saying it doesn't matter or it's not important, and it's not the same 00:18:17.740 --> 00:18:23.460 as saying that multiple viewpoints are true, because we believe at the end of the day there is a right 00:18:23.460 --> 00:18:29.519 answer to these questions. It may not be totally clear now, but we believe that our job as Christians is 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:35.900 to pursue greater and greater clarity on these issues. We should always be striving to be of 00:18:35.900 --> 00:18:42.420 one mind, as Paul says. And you know, I think Christians, we don't realize, those of us who are 00:18:42.420 --> 00:18:49.319 Christians, that we should be the best in the world at knowing how to disagree with people or be 00:18:49.319 --> 00:18:57.299 disagreed with and still love and respect and have civility. Right? Because at the very heart of our faith is a God who 00:18:57.299 --> 00:19:04.259 gives his life for people who hate him and disagree with him. So if there's any, any integration of our 00:19:04.259 --> 00:19:11.639 faith and our life, we should be really good at interacting with people who disagree with us 00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:20.400 and saying, it's okay, I still love you, I still respect you. I may be wrong. Right? There should be that 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:28.580 kind of open-handed humility. Right? You know, personally, I know that over the years we've had 00:19:28.580 --> 00:19:33.940 people here and there, Christians, who leave our church. We've had people leave our church because 00:19:33.940 --> 00:19:39.500 they disagree over this or that issue. And they say, well, I want to go find a church that aligns with 00:19:39.500 --> 00:19:43.980 what I believe on this or that issue. And you know, that's going to happen. I mean, in any church that 00:19:43.980 --> 00:19:50.680 happens. Right? That's just a part of church life. But the thing that breaks my heart is when that 00:19:50.680 --> 00:19:58.359 happens and those people at no point were willing to engage or discuss or debate these issues, either 00:19:58.359 --> 00:20:04.559 with me or other people who might disagree with them. That's what breaks my heart. Now, it may still 00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:10.539 lead to the same outcome. People may still leave. That's fine. But I feel like when we avoid the hard 00:20:10.539 --> 00:20:16.299 conversations, when we avoid the opportunity to sit down, open Scripture, and figure out what it says, 00:20:17.139 --> 00:20:23.500 I feel like we're missing something vital. It's our loss when that doesn't happen. 00:20:25.480 --> 00:20:32.599 And you know, honestly, if I, maybe this is just me, but I think that a lot of us are terrified, 00:20:32.599 --> 00:20:39.179 terrified, at the prospect of somebody disagreeing with us. You know, the idea of somebody looking at 00:20:39.179 --> 00:20:42.399 you and saying, I think you're wrong. I think you're full of crap. I don't think you know what 00:20:42.399 --> 00:20:48.279 you're talking about. I think that's terrifying to us. It's as though we will, at that very moment, 00:20:48.399 --> 00:20:55.679 melt into a puddle. Listen, the time comes when you have to own and take responsibility for what you 00:20:55.679 --> 00:21:01.959 believe or what you don't believe. You believe in Jesus great. You don't believe in Jesus great. You think 00:21:01.960 --> 00:21:08.160 that there is truth to the gospel? Great. You think that it's all fiction, myth? Great. But own your 00:21:08.160 --> 00:21:14.880 beliefs. Be willing to admit your beliefs. And be willing to put yourself in a situation where 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:19.799 somebody looks at you and says, I think that you're full of it. Because you know what? If you're anything 00:21:19.799 --> 00:21:26.759 like me, I think from time to time having somebody stick their finger in your face and tell you that 00:21:26.759 --> 00:21:31.140 they think that you're wrong, I think that's one of the best things that could happen to us. 00:21:31.940 --> 00:21:36.680 Because that is the only thing that's going to drive you back to scripture, drive you to your knees in 00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:40.500 prayer, drive you into the arms of Jesus, and drive you to that place where you're going to decide, 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:45.759 what do I really believe? And do I believe it enough to stake my life and my reputation on it? 00:21:46.920 --> 00:21:50.460 How else are you going to grow in your faith unless you put yourself out there? 00:21:50.460 --> 00:21:55.279 If you don't know what you believe, how are you going to figure out what you believe if you don't 00:21:55.279 --> 00:22:03.640 put yourself out there? Christians should be more than willing to take those hits. That's exactly what 00:22:03.640 --> 00:22:14.799 we saw our God do. So Paul calls us to have a public faith, living out our faith in the open, 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:20.440 being honest. Not as culture warriors and not as wallflowers, but as witnesses. He also calls 00:22:20.440 --> 00:22:25.820 us to a communal faith, doing faith together, working out our differences, pursuing unity in 00:22:25.820 --> 00:22:30.120 the essentials, relying on the grace and the truth and the love of the gospel to unite us, 00:22:30.320 --> 00:22:36.840 even when we have differences. And then the last aspect of a healthy, thriving, growing, 00:22:36.980 --> 00:22:44.580 joy-filled faith is this, it will involve suffering. It is a costly faith. It says in verse 29, 00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:49.200 for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:55.340 but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I 00:22:55.340 --> 00:23:04.039 still have. Disclaimer, I don't think this is just talking about any kind of suffering. This is not a 00:23:04.039 --> 00:23:14.420 kind of, you know, some sort of sadistic spirituality, you know. The more you suffer, the more it makes God 00:23:14.420 --> 00:23:19.900 happy, that's not what he's saying. This isn't talking about illness and oppression and chronic 00:23:19.900 --> 00:23:26.060 pain and this is not talking about just sort of that suffering exists because the world is a broken, 00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:33.259 evil place and our bodies are broken. This is talking about the specific kind of suffering that 00:23:33.259 --> 00:23:38.680 comes from following Jesus in this world. The same suffering that Jesus experienced, the same suffering 00:23:38.680 --> 00:23:44.100 that Paul experienced and the same suffering that he says all followers of Jesus will experience. The 00:23:44.100 --> 00:23:50.560 sacrifices that it requires, but also the people who will disagree and who will make your life really, 00:23:50.680 --> 00:23:54.640 really, really hard because of what you believe. 00:23:58.539 --> 00:24:04.180 Again, in our culture, I think the idea of anything that causes suffering, 00:24:04.180 --> 00:24:12.120 the idea of suffering implies that something has gone wrong. You know, I said in the morning service 00:24:12.120 --> 00:24:18.759 that we, you know, I told you my whole family got sick and my wife sent me to CVS down the road to 00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:23.019 get some medicine that would hopefully make her feel better and I love a good mission and so I went and 00:24:23.019 --> 00:24:27.220 I'm going to get the medicine and I get there right at 10 o'clock p.m. and the doors are locked. 00:24:27.220 --> 00:24:35.160 And I was raging, how could this happen? You know, such a cosmic injustice, 10 o'clock and they won't 00:24:35.160 --> 00:24:39.640 let me in. And I had this moment of realizing I just live off the assumption that if I need 00:24:39.640 --> 00:24:47.039 any medicine for anything, that I should be able to walk three blocks from my house and get that 00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:54.200 medicine at any hour of the day or night. I'm privileged. We're all privileged. The idea that we 00:24:54.200 --> 00:24:58.299 should have to suffer, something is wrong, somebody needs to pay, there's been a system breakdown. 00:25:01.120 --> 00:25:09.740 It's no surprise that we virtually invented a religion in the United States that not only 00:25:09.740 --> 00:25:14.200 promises that we don't have to suffer, but it promises that we don't even have to be 00:25:14.200 --> 00:25:21.720 inconvenienced for the sake of our faith. It's kind of a hijacked version of Judeo-Christian 00:25:21.720 --> 00:25:27.460 spirituality. It's what the sociologist Christian Smith calls moralistic therapeutic deism. 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:35.140 Moralistic therapeutic deism. What does it say? Well, it's pretty basic. There is a God. 00:25:36.279 --> 00:25:42.600 God basically just wants us to be nice to each other. Good people go to heaven. And God's job is 00:25:42.600 --> 00:25:46.200 really to make sure that you're happy, that you're fulfilled, and that you feel good about yourself. 00:25:46.200 --> 00:25:51.080 That's moralistic therapeutic deism. And here's the reason I'm bringing it up. 00:25:52.860 --> 00:25:57.319 Many people in our country who believe that they are Christians, who go to Christian churches, 00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:03.920 who are baptized as Christians, who check the Christian box on the census surveys, 00:26:04.340 --> 00:26:10.039 they're actually subscribing to moralistic therapeutic deism, and they don't know it. 00:26:10.039 --> 00:26:16.279 Here are five principles from the Bible to help you be more successful in your job. 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:24.899 God wants you to live your best life now. Here's four ways from Scripture that you can improve your 00:26:24.899 --> 00:26:30.940 relationships. That is moralistic therapeutic deism. It has very little to do with the gospel. 00:26:32.180 --> 00:26:34.159 Very little to do with Jesus. 00:26:34.160 --> 00:26:38.160 But it's very attractive. 00:26:40.740 --> 00:26:45.380 Four principles from the Bible to help you unleash your full potential, nobody's going to argue with that. 00:26:46.180 --> 00:26:49.580 That doesn't ask anything of you. You can be a complete atheist, and you're like, 00:26:49.660 --> 00:26:53.460 hey, I'll just put that on my advice list. That sounds great. I'll try that out. 00:26:55.700 --> 00:26:57.240 Principles for living, that's fantastic. 00:26:58.800 --> 00:27:01.140 It's as convenient as it is anemic. 00:27:01.140 --> 00:27:07.640 The gospel, and I'm talking about the real gospel, is so much better and so much more beautiful, 00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:10.400 but it begins with bad news. 00:27:11.600 --> 00:27:14.759 It's as, hey, bad news. 00:27:15.600 --> 00:27:17.900 You know, before the good news has to come the bad news. 00:27:18.580 --> 00:27:19.680 The bad news is this. 00:27:20.540 --> 00:27:21.640 You have a disorder. 00:27:22.600 --> 00:27:25.000 It's kind of a love disorder, right? 00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:27.880 You have a disordered love. 00:27:27.880 --> 00:27:33.440 In other words, the things that you love tend to take over and enslave you. 00:27:34.760 --> 00:27:35.120 Right? 00:27:35.220 --> 00:27:37.620 So if you're anything like me, you love your own glory. 00:27:38.600 --> 00:27:40.340 I love, I don't love God's glory. 00:27:40.440 --> 00:27:41.360 I love my glory. 00:27:42.660 --> 00:27:44.000 I want to be the guy up front. 00:27:44.280 --> 00:27:45.180 I want to be the guy. 00:27:45.940 --> 00:27:47.240 I want to be the important person. 00:27:47.320 --> 00:27:48.580 I want to be the person that people respect. 00:27:48.860 --> 00:27:49.720 I love my glory. 00:27:49.720 --> 00:27:57.480 And, you know, those of us who have jobs that promise glory, we will work 100 hours a week for that glory. 00:27:58.380 --> 00:28:08.299 You know, we talk about, we talk about, we can't believe that ancient Babylonian pagans used to sacrifice their children on the altar to Moloch or whoever. 00:28:09.100 --> 00:28:11.039 Child sacrifice is alive and well. 00:28:11.039 --> 00:28:17.859 But we just sacrifice our kids on the altar of work and glory and success, right? 00:28:19.539 --> 00:28:21.539 So we have a disorder of love. 00:28:21.720 --> 00:28:24.379 The things that we love take over our lives. 00:28:24.500 --> 00:28:25.220 They enslave us. 00:28:25.420 --> 00:28:27.940 And the places we look to for love never deliver. 00:28:28.879 --> 00:28:34.039 You can marry the best person in the world and all the, your Myers-Briggs scores are perfectly compatible. 00:28:34.259 --> 00:28:35.379 And it's amazing. 00:28:35.539 --> 00:28:37.099 And you're the same level of attractiveness. 00:28:37.319 --> 00:28:40.599 And the same, and all the inventories say two thumbs up. 00:28:41.039 --> 00:28:47.740 And, and all the, you know, the sexual chemistry is through the roof, you know, at least for the first six months. 00:28:49.539 --> 00:28:52.779 And their love is not going to be enough. 00:28:52.879 --> 00:28:53.819 It's not going to be enough. 00:28:54.039 --> 00:28:56.240 At some point you're going to say my needs aren't getting met here. 00:28:57.099 --> 00:29:01.399 It's because you're not meant to get that need met from anything here. 00:29:01.480 --> 00:29:05.180 The only thing that's going to meet that need is the love and the presence of God. 00:29:05.359 --> 00:29:06.899 But that's the nature of the disorder. 00:29:07.079 --> 00:29:08.799 It's like an eating disorder or an addiction. 00:29:08.799 --> 00:29:10.279 We're not seeing things clearly. 00:29:10.279 --> 00:29:14.899 And so the Bible says, and here's the beautiful part, you have a disorder of love. 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:15.559 That's your issue. 00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:17.399 But the answer is love. 00:29:17.980 --> 00:29:18.920 But it's God's love. 00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:23.740 It's God saying I'm going to give everything necessary so that you can belong to me. 00:29:23.940 --> 00:29:26.599 And you can relearn how to be loved. 00:29:27.859 --> 00:29:34.420 And out of that relearn how to love your family and your friends and your coworkers and your neighbors. 00:29:35.240 --> 00:29:35.500 Right? 00:29:35.500 --> 00:29:39.940 From being loved well, you're going to relearn how to love well. 00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:41.019 So here's the church. 00:29:41.180 --> 00:29:43.960 We're all dressed and we look nice and you guys look great. 00:29:44.019 --> 00:29:45.900 And we're in this kind of very formal space. 00:29:45.980 --> 00:29:48.859 And I'm 30 feet in the air on this kind of raised platform. 00:29:49.119 --> 00:29:50.279 And it feels very formal. 00:29:50.420 --> 00:29:51.539 But don't be fooled. 00:29:51.779 --> 00:29:53.579 This is like a giant rehab meeting. 00:29:54.579 --> 00:29:57.059 It's like an AA meeting and it should be in the basement. 00:29:58.199 --> 00:29:58.559 Right? 00:29:58.639 --> 00:30:00.019 And we're all sitting in the chairs. 00:30:00.119 --> 00:30:02.279 And I take this off and I'm just sitting in my chair. 00:30:02.460 --> 00:30:04.019 And we're all sitting in the metal chairs. 00:30:04.419 --> 00:30:10.099 And one by one we could stand up and talk about how this disorder has created destruction in our lives. 00:30:10.099 --> 00:30:13.619 And how we want to be free of it. 00:30:14.819 --> 00:30:20.819 And you know in AA there is suffering because people are willing to sacrifice whatever it takes. 00:30:20.939 --> 00:30:24.839 Because they believe that being free from that addiction is worth whatever price. 00:30:26.259 --> 00:30:30.659 And for those of us who have really become convinced that the gospel is true, we feel the same way. 00:30:30.660 --> 00:30:36.240 I am, I, it will, whatever it takes, whatever I have to sacrifice, however I have to suffer, I will do it. 00:30:36.279 --> 00:30:41.440 Because I believe that one day I will be free from the need to love things that destroy me. 00:30:42.720 --> 00:30:47.519 And I will be freed from the need to seek love from things that will destroy me. 00:30:48.860 --> 00:30:55.640 And one day I will be able to love the one being who will give me life and set me free. 00:30:55.640 --> 00:31:00.960 And then I will be able to love others in a way that will give them life and set them free. 00:31:02.020 --> 00:31:03.660 And it's worth whatever it takes. 00:31:05.740 --> 00:31:11.180 The Bible says the more we grow in that way, the more we are actually becoming human. 00:31:12.860 --> 00:31:14.200 That's the promise of the gospel. 00:31:17.860 --> 00:31:24.560 So do you want to know whether or not you have a healthy, vibrant, growing, joy-filled faith? 00:31:24.559 --> 00:31:29.759 Here's three things that you can consider as we move ahead in our gathering tonight. 00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:31.740 First, is it a public faith? 00:31:31.819 --> 00:31:35.500 Is there any aspect of your faith that is visible? 00:31:35.659 --> 00:31:43.259 Is it integrated, in other words, enough into your life that other people might be able to catch glimmers of it as you go about your daily rhythms? 00:31:43.960 --> 00:31:44.759 That's the first thing. 00:31:45.940 --> 00:31:47.639 The second thing, is it communal? 00:31:49.139 --> 00:31:51.819 Are there other people with whom you share your faith? 00:31:51.819 --> 00:31:55.799 Are you at the point where you're willing to disagree and be disagreed with? 00:31:55.919 --> 00:32:06.679 Are you interested in pursuing greater clarity and understanding on the issues that you don't understand or where you do disagree with your friends or your community? 00:32:08.240 --> 00:32:10.359 And then thirdly, does it cost you anything? 00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:14.000 That may be the single most important diagnostic indicator. 00:32:15.960 --> 00:32:17.740 Does your faith cost you anything? 00:32:18.039 --> 00:32:18.819 Why does that matter? 00:32:18.819 --> 00:32:18.879 Why does that matter? 00:32:19.759 --> 00:32:22.859 Because your faith cost Jesus everything. 00:32:23.919 --> 00:32:26.460 And it was his delight to pay it. 00:32:27.359 --> 00:32:31.859 So we should at least consider whether or not we understand what it is into which we have entered. 00:32:33.939 --> 00:32:34.559 Let's pray. 00:32:36.059 --> 00:32:38.259 Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your word. 00:32:38.619 --> 00:32:42.339 We thank you for what is true of this. 00:32:42.419 --> 00:32:44.839 What is not true, I pray that we would remember it no more. 00:32:44.839 --> 00:32:52.259 What is true, Lord, what is of you, we pray that you would, by the power of your spirit, implant your word deep in our heart. 00:32:53.339 --> 00:32:57.039 That it would bring life into us and through us. 00:32:58.119 --> 00:33:01.919 That we would know more of what it means that we are loved by you. 00:33:02.779 --> 00:33:04.480 We pray this in your son's holy name. 00:33:04.779 --> 00:33:05.019 Amen. 00:33:05.019 --> 00:33:05.119 Amen. 00:33:05.119 --> 00:33:05.159 Amen. 00:33:05.159 --> 00:33:05.179 Amen. 00:33:05.179 --> 00:33:05.199 Amen. 00:33:05.199 --> 00:33:05.220 Amen. 00:33:05.220 --> 00:33:05.240 Amen. 00:33:05.240 --> 00:33:05.299 Amen. 00:33:05.299 --> 00:33:07.240 Amen. 00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:07.299 Amen. 00:33:07.299 --> 00:33:09.299 Amen. 00:33:09.299 --> 00:33:11.299 Amen. 00:33:11.299 --> 00:33:11.359 Amen.