Crystal Sparks' Podcast

197. [Philippians Study] The Biggest Threat to Your Ministry

• Crystal Sparks

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What if the biggest reward for your life isn’t a title or a win—but the people who cross into eternity because you stayed faithful and chose unity over pride? We dive into Philippians 4:1–3 with a clear lens: joy follows the mind, unity fuels mission, and spiritual maturity is measured by how quickly we reconcile rather than how loudly we insist we’re right.

We start by tracing Paul’s pattern—orthodoxy before orthopraxy—showing how belief shapes practice and why surface fixes never stick without a transformed heart. From there, we look at his tender yet urgent appeal to Euodia and Syntyche. He doesn’t air the details; he calls them to share the same mind in the Lord. That phrase becomes the engine of the whole conversation: the mind of Christ from Philippians 2, the low road of humility, the willingness to lay down reputation for the sake of unity. Along the way, we call out the “autoimmune church” problem—when the body attacks itself through gossip, factions, and stories we invent about each other’s motives—and offer a practical, pastoral path toward reconciliation that moves beyond venting and into repair.

We also highlight the often-overlooked strength of women co-laborers in the early church, naming Euodia and Syntyche alongside Clement to show how gospel work has always been carried by women and men together. Finally, we lift our eyes to the book of life and the eternal perspective that frees us from craving credit and anchors us in quiet, faithful service. People are the crown. Unity is the lane. Joy is the byproduct of a mind fixed on Christ and a team committed to peace. If you’re leading, serving, or simply seeking a healthier church life, this conversation will give you a hopeful, sturdy roadmap for navigating conflict, nurturing humility, and keeping your eyes on what lasts.

My hope is that this podcast helps grow your faith and equips you to accomplish your dreams and goals!

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to another part of my Philippians study that I have been doing with our staff at Staff Chapel. If you haven't listened to the other parts, you might want to go back deeper into my podcast, check out those episodes, and catch yourself up to join where we're at today. Okay, we are officially on the 27th of this month. We are one year in Philippians. From here. We made it into chapter four. I told you when we started we might be here for a year. I thought it was a joke. Here we are. So, all right. Um, so here we are. Uh the summary of the entire Bible. Um, because we don't learn truth, we remember truth, and it's the truth we remember that sets us free. And so uh church is the only education institution that frowns upon repetition. We want something new, and the new thing that God wants to do is often found in the old thing that he's done. So it's okay to re-hear things. Um, so the whole Bible summed up is we begin with God's law, which is the first five books of the Bible. Then it moves it into God's people. This is the horse historical books of the Bible that tells us the story of God's people, who is Israel, um, because God wanted to set apart a people. We being Gentile believers are now part of that Israel. Um then we have God's wisdom books, which holds the whole Bible together. Then next is God's prophets. Uh, they're calling back his people. And so that's what all the prophets are about. It's about reminding them of the law, and then it's time to come back to God. Then we see the gospels, which is God's Son. Then it moves into God's church, which is the epistles. And then finally we end with the book of Revelation telling us that God is coming back. Amen. All right. So we're gonna be in Philippians uh chapter four. Um, we're gonna attempt to do one through three. I think we should be able to get it done. Um, Philippians chapter four, verses one through three. It says, Therefore, my beloved and longed for brethren, like just sit with that. Like how much he loves. Remember how we began this in Philippians chapter one? It's like he loves them from the place of his bowels, like this deep love. And he's ending the book with that same kind of like deep affection for these people that he's leading. And so, therefore, my beloved and longed for brethren, my joy and crown, stand fast in the Lord, beloved. I implore Udiah and I implore Siktiki to be of the same mind in the Lord, and I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement, also, and the rest of my br fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. So, in uh, we made it into four. Um to celebrate. Did you guys know that three of the most searched for verses every year are from Philippians chapter four? Like consistently, when people are Googling verses, uh Philippians chapter four is like the most Googled, like searched phrase, uh verses, which I think is interesting. And so in verse one, um, we see our joy count going up. I have it as 12. I don't even know if it's 12 at this point. That's what my notes say. So I'm just gonna trust it. Um, but we have joy count number 12, remembering that this is like a core central theme of the book of Philippians. I would say second to uh joy being um the theme is mind. We see mind mentioned so many times in the book of Philippians, and which all of us can say that our joy is also predicated upon what our mind is fixed on. And so, because mind is like something that Paul's continuously reminding the flip church at Philippi about, of keeping their mind on Christ. And so um here he says that they that they are his crown, and so this is an eschatological um verse, and so uh a lot a lot of times whenever we think of eschatology or apocalyptic, um I try to stay away from that word because I think we have too much cultural baggage with it. Um, but uh Mark would be the most apocalyptic book in the Bible. And when I talk about apocalyptic, I'm not talking about a zombie apocalypse. I'm talking about when you cross into eternity, what's waiting for you on the other side? And eschatology, meaning what's gonna happen when we cross into eternity. And so his eyes here, he calls them his crown. Guys, when we get to heaven, people, the goal is people are our crown. Like it's not about the things, not about the things, it's not about the car you drive, the house you buy, the title at your job. That's not it. And he calls the people, he says, You're my crown. You're my crown. Our goal is that we're bringing people into eternity. That's the goal. That we're influencing people for the kingdom. That's that's what it's all about. And so um, all we do, everything that we do is for a crown that will be given, not here, but in eternity. That's that's what our eyes are on, is for eternal rewards. And so he says, stand fast. Um it's defined for us in verse uh back in 127, uh chapter 1, verse 27. And he says this in uh Philippians 127, he says, Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. So now that we've kind of moved through the book, um, you'll see that he defines for us how we stand firm in Philippians 3, 1 through 21. Um, he gave us definitions for what was attacking their faith walk. Remember how he talked out and he said, Hey, beware of the barking dogs. And then he told us what the barking dogs were. He told us exactly what the evildoers were back in chapter three. So he defined that very clearly of the things that are trying to keep them from standing firm. And then he talks about in one spirit as one person. And this was clearly defined for us in his Christology that he laid out for us. He very clearly defined what the gospel is, he very clearly defined for them what Christ had done for them. And so that is what we're doing as we stand in one spirit as one person and contending for the faith of the gospel. So now he pivots his focus. Um, so keep in mind that for Paul, again, and I know that we've seen this pattern over and over again, but he's gonna lay out orthodoxy, then he's gonna lay out orthopraxy. So what you believe determines what you practice. We try to fix what we're practicing without addressing what we believe. Paul's always gonna address the belief behind the action. Kind of like parents, when you when you're correcting your kids, it's less about the behavior, more about the heart motive behind the behavior. And if you get to the heart motive, the behavior will change. But if all we're doing is behavior modification, it's never gonna change unless you're present in the room to conduct the next behavior. Does this make sense? Um, okay, so then in verse two, he says, Um uh, so we have the joy count, uh, Lord and beloved, and he says, I implore Udiah and I implore Siptiki uh to be of the same mind in the Lord. Okay, so these two names um they have pagan roots, and literally um success, and the other means lucky. And so there it's believed that their parents worship pagan gods. So these women got converted at some point, and so you even think about their names, meaning that the parents wanted something good to come of their life. Like you named your kid success, you named your kid lucky, like you wanted something good. Now, I just want you to imagine that you get to heaven and they're they're like, y'all are all talking. I'm just using prophetic license right now. Just imagine that you're in heaven and KK, you're up there and they go, Hey, did you know that you made it in the Bible? And you're like, What? Yeah, people are still talking about you today. What? Well, what did they say? Oh, they're talking about your beef that you had with old Judia. Like, that would suck, right? Does anybody agree that would suck? You're like, really? Why you gotta call me out like that, Paul? And so they had beef, and you know what's interesting to me is Paul doesn't even talk about the beef. He doesn't even spill the tea. He could have, because we know in Corinthians he was pretty savage, like he it's a tea fest going on over there, it's just like rolling out everywhere. But here he's like, Listen, I implore you. I want you to think about that. That true leadership, as it doesn't command. True leadership as it doesn't command. He could have said, I command you, Yulia, I command you, Sitki, but instead he chooses to say, I I ask you. Like I want you to consider this. Like, what are you doing? And so remember that Paul's continual emphasis is being of the same mind. In uh Philippians 3, 15 and 16, he says, Therefore, let as many of us are mature. So maturity tells me that you'll be willing to be in the same mind. When we're immature, we have factions and rivalries. Maturity says, I love what God is doing more than I love being right. Maturity says, I'm gonna keep myself planted even when I disagree. There was no such thing as like at the church of Philippi, I'm I don't like you, I'm going to another church. There was no such thing as that. It was like we have to work this out. And so he says, as many as mature, have this mind. And if anything, you will think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule and let us be of the same mind. And so for Paul, unity is a really big deal. And I'll say for the church today, the way to stop a move of God is to get disunified. The way to stop what God's doing, it's to get disunified. It's to begin to have these factions and dissensions between us. It's letting gossip get in. It's we begin to ascribe people's heart motives, we begin to let little things, we build a whole narrative around it. And for Paul, unity is a really big deal. And so for Paul, offenses work like this for believers. If you are a believer, you would work it out. If you don't, you're not a Christian. I'm gonna say that again. For Paul, if you're a believer, you'll work it out. If you don't, you aren't a Christian. To him, there was no such thing as a disunified Christian. To be a believer means I'm linked to Lily. To be a believer means I'm linked to Shaq. Even with things I don't agree with, you're part of the body. Does that make sense? And we're gonna work this thing out. So he's like, I implore you. Paul defined what the same mindset is all about. He did this for us all the way back when he laid out Christology in Philippians 2, verses 6 through 11. So let's flip over there because when we're saying the same mind, what are we talking about? And being in the form of God, who did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore, God has also highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and those of the earth and those under the earth, that every tongue should confess, and that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So for Paul, what he's doing is he's pointing back to the mission is all about Christ. It's the same mind. It's our belief in Jesus that unites us together. But as I'm in Christ, I take on his likeness. So he leads from a place of humility, he takes a low place. Are we are we following? He's he's willing to, we don't have to be heard or be right. We're gonna take a low place. Jesus could have spoken up for himself, he could have defended himself, but the Bible says he went as a lamb to the slaughter. And so there's times, come on, when we're leading people, that unity is more important than being right. Is this good? So the emphasis on um in the Lord in verse 2, um, this idea that we are all found in Christ is central to Paul. So think about this that even in uh medical world, if your body starts attacking itself, it's called an autoimmune disease. And I think the church has a lot of autoimmune disorders. It's like we're attacking ourselves. Like my beef with Tylin, it's actually attacking the very body that God's trying to build. People don't get this. And for Paul, like we're all in the same body, so we've got to have that ecclesiological look of things. Is this good? Okay, the beauty of being found in the Lord is this is uniting together with the saints and the apostles. So when I say that I'm being found in Christ, I'm uniting myself with the historic church. I'm uniting myself with the apostles and the saints that have gone before him. I'm uniting myself within the congregation. So when I say I'm in Christ, when we pray in Jesus' name, I'm saying I am in the same body as Rance. I am in the same body as Zach. I'm positioning myself and I'm in the same body that Paul, the apostles, and the saints before me. Um whenever you go to Europe, it's interesting because you'll a lot of churches they have graveyards. Y'all remember how old churches have graveyards? Um, some of the churches over in Europe to walk into the church, you have a graveyard in front of the church. And so you walk through a graveyard to get to the front doors of the church. And you're seeing the saints of old that were in that church that had sacrificed to build the building you're about to walk into. Because this thing has been around for hundreds of years before you even existed, right? And what it does to the believer is it reminds them of this is that my beliefs aren't just united with the people I'm about to worship with, but it's the generations that have gone before. It's a uniting together. In fact, even historically, um, the early church came together and they're like, how do you count the number in your congregation? Like, how do we count that? And basically the consensus was this that the church is made up not just of the people that attend today, but the people that have gone on to glory before us, that they are still part of the count of the body of believers. And so what it did to the believers as they walked in, it had a holy weight on them that now the baton's in my hand. And how am I carrying it? That there will be a generation coming after me that will worship because I sacrifice. They'll worship because we stayed unified, they'll worship because we stayed loyal to the message. Is this is this good? Are you following? So, this being found in the Lord, it's using, and then finally it's uniting myself to Christ. So there's a little chiasm here. Um, I thought I'd build it out for you. Um, it starts in 1B, it starts in the Lord, and so I drew it out for you for funsies. Oh, okay, great. Wow, good, good job. Okay, so we have in the Lord here, and then we have in the Lord on the other side um in 2B, and then we have Impor Udia as 2A, Impor Sikidi in uh 2A, and then we have let it go up here. So it's a good little let it go chiasm. So the point of it all, because my one college students, what's the point in a chiastic structure? What is the main point of the message at the top? So, what's the whole point of all of this? Okay, so take this all. You can replace your name. So you can put Brian and Crystal found in the Lord. The whole point of the beef that you have, let it go. It's really not about the things, it's about because we're grounded in the Lord, we're gonna let it go. And that's that's the point of what Paul's trying to say. So if you wanted a little chiasm, there you go. Verse three. Verse three. So he says, and I urge you, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel. I love that it says, help these women. Sometimes we have to be willing to walk people through the offense that they have. And Paul's letting them know, hey, they're probably gonna need a little bit of help to walk this out. And our job is to reconcile people to Christ. That's what happens every Sunday when we give a salvation call, or Pastor Brian has a moment in his services where he leads us in a time of repentant prayer, of like, God, we're sorry that we've done this, whatever it is. What is he doing in that moment? He's reconciling us to Christ. But our job secondarily as church staff, we're all priests as one college people, you're all priests, is reconciling people to each other. And so when somebody has beef, it's gonna feel I'm just like rifting right now. Is this okay? So Hudson might come to me and he's he's got beef against Bear. And it feels good for Hudson to talk to me because he's like now he feels seen, he feels heard, and there's a moment of that. But my job is I reconcile him in that moment. Okay, what does Christ say? Let's invite Jesus into the conversation, and now I must reconcile Hudson to Bear. The conversation isn't over because only one part is done. He's reconciled to God, he feels better, he's vented it, so then I say, Hey, we're gonna talk to Bear. I don't want to talk to Bear. Yeah, but it's not resolved. We've got to reconcile you to each other because inside of him, until this gets set right, there's gonna be a faction there. There's gonna be a faction there. And our job, our chief job, is to mediate people, yes, to Christ, but also to each other. So he says here, um, this is really interesting because um, if you want to talk about women in ministry, actually, this verse gives us a great groundwork. Um, uh Christian women in ministry ethic is being defined here by Paul. And so there's a man here, it says, um, with Clement. So he calls them, he says that they labored with him. These two women who have beef with each other. In other words, you can be doing big things for the kingdom, and the way that the enemy wants to stop it is to get you to have beef with each other. So here these women are. They they he said they co-labored with me in the gospel, along with Clement. Now, Clement is Clement of Rome here, and um, I love one of the things, one of the quotes from him. He's got a lot of great ones. Um, he says, Love admits to no schisms, love gives rise to no seditions, love does all things in harmony. Um, Clement is uh known, we know him from origin and Eusbicius, and he also wrote a letter to the Corinthian church that didn't get canonized in scripture. Um, it wasn't kept well, and uh there's like debate whether he should be considered apostle. There's like all these debates around it, but you can look it up, you can read it online. It's so Paul, it sounds so Paul, and um, he's bringing correction to the Corinthian church because they, after 2 Corinthians, they didn't listen to Paul. They decided to get another leader in place. Are y'all okay right now? Are you learning something? So they decided to get another leader in place, and with them getting another leader in place, Clement of Rome gets upset and he basically writes them a letter and he's like, Why are you stopping what God's wanting to do? And the letter is beautiful, it sounds very Pauline in its nature. So I want you to think about this. Um, that he he with him doing this, um, he is somebody that was used in a great way for the kingdom. He was used in a great way. In fact, um Clement of Rome was traditionally believed to have been martyred um by being tied to an anchor and drowned in the sea under Roman Emperor Trajan. And so this is interesting because he gave everything for the gospel's sake. Now, I will say that these two women, Paul's likening them to Clement. So Clement had a voice to the church, he wrote to the churches, he was a co-laborer along with Paul. So, in other words, women were involved in the churches. This is affirming women leadership, women influence, women having a part. And so if you if you want like to arm your gun, there you go, and your theological gun, you've got another bullet. All right. So, um, so this shouldn't surprise us that women were pivotal because remember where uh the church of Philippi was established in Acts chapter 16, 13 through 15, um, we see Lydia and the women are all in a prayer gathering by the river, and that's where the Church of Philippi came from. So it has a lot of uh women in its foundation, and so it doesn't surprise the reader, it shouldn't surprise the reader that women were also involved in the perpetuation of that church, the leading of that house beyond that moment. So we have two women who are doing big things for the spread of the gospel that have fallen into offense. Our heart postures matter. How easy it is to become polluted as we're doing what God asked us to do. Guys, let me tell you, the more the ministry accelerates, the more growth you have, the more you have to war against offenses. And it doesn't say that they were mad at each other. Hey, staff, it's right here. The enemy, if he can get us divided, watch it just begin to trickle into every other area. Like we we fight for unity. We we fight for that. We've got to keep those things together. So, book of life, he says, also the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Now, just keep in mind like there's a lot of shout outs that happen from Paul. I forget how many names in general that he says, but he says, and all the rest of the fellow workers whose names are written in the book of life. Just side note, don't worry about if Pastor Brian gives you a shout-out or if somebody like gives you a shout-out for what you did. Ultimately, your name's written somewhere, like God recognizes it. And so if you're receiving these letters from Paul, like I'm sure there was something in you that you're like, man, I kind of want my name to be said. But ultimately, our ultimate win is the reward we're gonna get in eternity. But he mentions the book of life, and this is interesting because it's the only time that's mentioned in the book in the New Testament outside of the book of Revelation. Just fun fact. Um, the term used to refer um to a heavenly record. The phrase appears seven times in the New Testament. Um, this is the only time outside of Revelation. And then the Christian understanding of the phrase, however, is rooted in the Old Testament. Um, passages such as Exodus uh 32, and I have a list there for you on the slide, um, imply a firm record being kept by God. So God is seen as keeping account of his people's faithfulness and obedience, and possibly that of other nations as well. And uh with this, it parallels the poetic lines to the physical living. So, in through Daniel and Malachi, when it's referenced, um, it's linked with descriptions of final judgment and events of in time, names and deeds and divine um are recorded. It's letting us know. So I would just urge you like ultimately our reward is in heaven, like keeping our eyes on that. And we have absolute what it's trying to affirm to the leader, there's absolute confidence in God's care for his own is affirmed by the words written before the foundation of the world. So we'll stop there because the next section is gonna be four through, I think I've got it as four through 11. And so I don't want to break up that section. But with all that said, let me just pray for us as we uh close out this time. Father, we just thank you. Um God, I thank you for all that you're doing. Um, Lord, right now, we just say what an honor it is to reconcile people to you. Lord, it's a holy call. No matter what our role is on a Sunday morning, no matter what our job title is, our ultimately, our ultimate calling is to reconcile people to you. And Father, I just thank you that secondarily our role is to reconcile people to each other. And so, Father, right now we just say that there's unity here in our house, that no factions or divisions can stand. That Lord, even as we read this scripture, Father, I thank you. Um, Lord, that you're reminding us that as we're doing what you've called us to do, that our heart matters, our heart postures matter, our words about each other, they matter. And so, Father, we fight for that, we stand for that. And so, Lord, we thank you that here at One Church, we have one mind, and that is Christ. And that it's that that unifies us, it's that that keeps us going forward. And so, Jesus, I just thank you for a blessing on every person here. Lord, thank you for a great Sunday. Um, may your kingdom advance in Jesus' name. And somebody who believed it said, Amen. Amen. I love you guys. Have a great week. Thanks so much for hanging out here on my podcast. Do me a favor and hit the subscribe button if you haven't done so already, so you never miss out on anything here on my podcast. 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