"Philippians-A Manna Study" Week 3

In Week 3 of “Philippians-A Manna Study, Pastor Jake challenged us to take an honest look at the “buffet” of choices we fill our lives with and ask whether they truly honor God. Through Paul’s words in Philippians, we were reminded that spiritual maturity means choosing what is excellent over what is merely available. The message pressed us to evaluate our habits, priorities, and desires in light of Christ’s example. Ultimately, “The Buffet” called us to live intentionally, pursuing a life that reflects God’s heart in every choice we make.

Our mission is to glorify God by equipping His people to change their world and by planting churches with the same world-changing vision.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Mana Church Stafford Podcast, where we're all about equipping God's people to change their world. We're thankful you're here, and we're praying that this message encourages you to love God, love others, and love the world more fervently than before. Now, let's get to it.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

You know, I feel like um we're at the risk of people thinking that maybe I have like an issue with food. You know, we do pizza with pastor, and then we have newcomers, and now I'm getting high. Um I actually do really like food though. In fact, uh the the if I could give our sermon today, a title, it would be The Buffet. So we're gonna talk about food today, too. This is there's a little bit of a strange uh Okay. Well, that's yeah. This is unique. Oh, there we go. The joys of being in a school, portable church. That's okay. Thank you, Sarah. Well, yeah, so today we're gonna talk about food a little bit. Anybody else hear a foodie? Yes, foodies? Okay, so so somebody, your favorite restaurant?

unknown 1:25

Fahrenheit.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Fahrenheit. Okay, Fahrenheit's pretty good. It's a little bougie, a little expensive. Anyone else favorite restaurant?

unknown 1:31

Cheesecake factory.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Cheesecake Factory, they got a massive menu. So, so my my one of my favorite restaurants, because I really do like food, is Texas Day Brazil. Do I got any Texas Day Brazil fans out there? Yes. Okay, so if you're not familiar with Texas Day Brazil, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a little insight. I'm gonna change your life here, alright, because it's good food. It's a Brazilian steakhouse, a churriscaria, and it's like it's like a buffet, but it uh kind of an expensive type of buffet. You know, it's not like old country buffet or or you know uh one of those other ones, right? It it's it's good. And and they've got so many delicious meats, and they just bring them right to you. You don't even have to get up and go get them. So they have sirloins, they have um, you know, like marinated, like the garlic sirloins, they have um parmesan chicken and garlic chicken, they have ribs, it hanger steaks, hanger steaks so good. Um and they do actually have a really good salad bar too, some soups and stuff on there. So it's just so much food. And you could actually, if you wanted, make a meal out of any individual thing there, right? You could just pick, like, I'm just gonna lock in on the hanger steak. That's what I want. And they're just gonna keep bringing it to you the whole time. And so now that I've made you super hungry, you're gonna want me to shut up and finish the message so you can get the lunch. But um, this passage of passage of scripture that we're gonna be covering today, it's kind of like a buffet. It's kind of like that. There's gonna be a lot of different things that we cover, and I could lock in on any one of them, and you could make it your main course, and it's like, oh my goodness, that's so good. I just want to sit and camp on it. But we don't have time to do that. So, so my goal today, my goal today is to just give you some small helpings in every single one of these. I want you to sample all of this buffet that we're gonna be talking about, starting in Philippians chapter 1, 27, and going into chapter 2. I'm just gonna give you some small helpings so that way you can go back for seconds and thirds on your own. Amen? All right, great. So, so one of the reasons that this letter that Paul writes to the church at Philippi is it feels like a buffet, is because it's meant to feel that way. Like, Paul's not writing a sermon, okay? He wasn't sitting in his prison cell and thinking, like, what's a really great sermon I could give these guys with three big takeaways and some application steps. He's talking to real people that he dearly loves, and he's giving them some things that they need to address. He's all he talks about specific issues that are happening in the church, but he's throwing in these big encouragements throughout. And one of the things I love about preaching, uh, you know, the word says that there's a foolishness to preaching. And um one of the things I love about it is that I just get to be up here and just be a vessel for whatever God wants to share. And there's so many times where um I'll come up and I'll deliver a word, and I might not think it's that great. And somebody will be like, oh, that blessed me. And I'm like, thank goodness the Lord just does what he wants to do. You know? Like, like God has the Holy Spirit is actually speaking to you right now. He's gonna be speaking to you throughout the message, and he's gonna highlight some things that may be what I say or they may be adjacent to what I say, but the Holy Spirit is the one who does the work. Amen. So, so so I'm just telling you, there's so much stuff in this passage, it's gonna be difficult for you to not get something from the Lord. So that said, there's at least two high points that I really want to hit. Two of the, you know, kind of like the two things that when you go to the buffet, like I'm not gonna miss this, and I'm not gonna miss this. And so for this, my first trip to the buffet, um, and what we're gonna hit today at the very beginning here, um, you always get at least one thing. You're like, I'm not gonna miss this. If I go there, I'm not gonna miss it. And for me, when I go to Texas day, Brazil, it's a bacon wrap filet. So good. They bring it out on this spit and they just shh, pop it right on your plate. So bacon wrap filet, first verse here, Philippians chapter one, verse twenty-seven, he says this: only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So that whether I come and see you or I am absent, I may hear of you that you're standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. So let's go back here. He says, only. Somebody say, only. Only. All right. He's like, look, this is all I ask. I've got one request. Only. It's kind of like when you when you leave and you um your moms and dads, you go and you tell your kids, like, hey, we're leaving, just don't make a mess. Like, can you do that? Can you just not destroy the house? Like, just just don't don't fight. Like, there's one thing I've got, and this is what this is what Paul tells them here. He says, Look, only do this. Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Now, this would be like, I get this for my kids, when I leave and I the house is you know a mess, the dishes are piled, you know, outside of the sink, and I'm like, I only want you to clean the house. It's like, oh, is that it? That's all? Only, like, only clean the whole house, and they're like, Dad, uh, Paul is this is a huge ask. He's saying, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Like, oh, yeah, that's no problem. That's easy, right? I could do that. I wonder if each of us were to give ourselves an honest assessment. Like, if you were to really think about this verse, think about what it means, think about what it means for your life, if we would say that we are even close to living up to this challenge from Paul. When we think about what the gospel is, what it means, who it's about, does your life, does my life, stack up to that testimony? Does it match, in effect, does it match the value or the worth of the gospel? It's a really difficult question. It's a hard challenge from Paul, but it's a challenge for every single believer. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel. And see, listen, we we can't earn our salvation through any works we do, but we do have a choice in how we live our lives after we accept Jesus. We have a choice in the manner of life that we pursue and that people see. And so, just to unpack this a little bit more, I'm not a big Greek guy, but there's a Greek word here that's really important. It's it's called polite Uesthe. That's the word, and it actually is a section of this statement, conduct yourselves worthy. That's polite Uesthe, that's what that word is. And it actually is a really important reference because it's a political one. It's a political reference, and some of us could use this today. What he's saying is, let your citizenship be worthy of the gospel. Just another way to say it. There's some translations that actually translate it that way. Let your citizenship be worthy of the gospel of God. Now, the context here, think about as Paul's writing this, he's a prisoner in jail. Some would say he's a political prisoner, and he's encouraging other people in their citizenship. Let your citizenship be worthy of the gospel of Christ. I think some of us could use that encouragement today, huh? Be worthy citizens. Don't worry, I'm not going to get into all kinds of political stuff. But just think about that. What does it mean to be a worthy citizen? That that the way that you behave yourself in the public sphere, the way that people see you behaving, the way that people see you um encouraging, challenging, you know, whatever it is, they're like, man, there's something different about their citizenship. And he says, listen, whether I come see you or I'm absent. So live this way, live worthy that whether I come see you or else I'm absent, I'm going on here, and we've got it on the screen. He's saying, look, have integrity. He's saying, I shouldn't have to babysit you for you to get this stuff right. I listen, can you live a life worthy of Jesus even if I'm not holding your hand? Can you do that? I want us here at Manda Church, I want us to be self-feeding disciples. I don't want to have to, like, if I have to handhold you through every stage of life to help you live a life worthy of the calling to which God has called you, man, that's not gonna work. We've got to be self-self-feeding. And Paul's saying, if I'm there, if I'm gone, I just want to know that you're still doing this. He said that I may hear of you, that you're standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving together, side by side for the faith of the gospel. He's saying, work together. Be united. This is actually what living a life worthy of the calling, this is at least one element of it. If I have one grievance against the Western Church, the church in America, at least one of them, it would be this that we don't work together. We're not united. We are so divided. We're such rebels. We hate authority. If we dislike something, we just go start a new church. I'm gonna tell you, if we got this right, we could change the world. There's not a single issue. There's not a single problem. Homelessness, poverty, injustice, violence, uh sanctity of life, family structure, education. There's not a single issue that the church, if we were united in America, we could not change for the glory of God. Amen. I'll tell you what, this just soapbox moment for a minute. Um I think that that the church, we have abdicated so many things to the government that it has undermined the advance of the gospel. Like welfare, I don't necessarily believe that the government should be involved in the welfare business. Not because I don't think that people shouldn't get charity and they shouldn't be getting that. It's just the church's job. We should be doing that. The government shouldn't be having to pay people to put food on their table and clothes on their backs. The church should be doing that. And we've abdicated that role. We've given it to somebody else, and guess what? They're not gonna do it as good as the church would do it. Sorry, I got a little fired up there. My bad. Here you go. He goes on, he goes on. He says, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. When you work together, you won't be afraid, and guess what? Your opponents will. When we start working side by side, the bad guys get afraid. They're like, Well, man, this unity is kind of frightening to me. I'm gonna move on. All right. So, so so I I got my bacon raffila. It was so good. Now I'm gonna go back and I I eat out of order. I'm an adult, I can do what I want. I'm gonna go and I'm gonna get the lobster bisque right now, okay? Because they've got this delicious lobster bisque at Texas State Brazil. Super good. So I'm gonna go back, I'm gonna get a little salad. This is just how I eat the buffet. So he goes on. He says, verse one of chapter two, he says, if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. Listen, if you're gonna live life together in the body of Christ, you gotta die to self. I love, I love how he says this here. He's like, if there's any encouragement, if there's any comfort of love, he's like saying, if you have even a shred of Jesus in you, if there's just a little bit of Jesus, can you please get this right? And it's one of the things that we definitely do not get right. This is what he wants us to get right. Like, be of one accord, one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Look not only for your own interest, but also for the interest of others. Man, worthy citizens, people who walk worthy of the calling to which you've been called, they're concerned about other people. They're very, they're very other focused. They're outward focused, and we are an outward-focused church. We're not we're not just just focused on this little group that meets here. Let me ask you this question. This grieves my heart on Sundays so many times. When I see somebody come in and I don't know them necessarily, and I'm pretty good with names, but man, there's a lot of times I forget people's names, and it grieves me that someone might not felt seen. Do you see other people when you come into the assembly here? Do you consider them? Do you consider them more significant than you? Are you like, I'm kind of a big deal? I'm just coming here. Like most of us when we come to church, we're we're just we're self-feeding. Like I'm gonna feed myself and not self-feeding in the good way. We're we're just we're coming to consume a lot of times, if we're honest. How many times do we come to church thinking about other people, considering them more important, more significant than us? He's saying this in the context of unity. You know the antidote for disunity? It's this. This is the antidote for disunity. It's very hard to be ununified with someone when you think that they're a bigger deal than you are, when you think they're more significant than you, when you humble yourself and and go low around them. Alright, moving on. Third plate. This is this is the second big wave top. This is the thing that when I go to Texas Day Brazil, my bacon wrap filet, and then I got one other dish. I actually call the gaucho, that's what they're called. Gauchos. So um, when the gaucho comes around, he's got his cool little outfit on, he's got a spit of of stuff, I I grab one of them, I'm like, where's the beef rib? They gotta bring the beef rib. And I don't know why, I always gotta ask them to bring the beef rib to me. Like it's like it's like it's rare or something like that. So the beef rib, it is the crescendo of the meal for me when I go to Texas Day Brazil. And if I could, this is kind of the crescendo of this section of scripture we're talking about. It may even be the crescendo of this entire letter to the church at Philippi that Paul is writing, because it is super powerful. And again, in the context of living a life worthy of the calling to which you've been called, in the context of unity, in the context of considering others more significant than you, this is what Paul says, Verse 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Think the same way Jesus does, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, and this is so cool, therefore, because of that, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every other name, amen. So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Somebody say amen, because that's that's good. Man, that is good. Oh, I love it. He's saying, your mind, get your mind in this type of a thinking. And your mind is a super, super powerful thing. It can it can change the way that you see the world. And Paul is telling us to have the same mind that Jesus did, and then in case we don't understand the type of mind that Jesus had, he's like, let me just explain how Jesus' mind worked, okay? Let me just give you a picture into how his mind worked. So, first off, verse 6 he says, In form he was God. He said, Who? Being inform God. So, so again, Jesus was fully God, never let anyone convince you otherwise. I'm gonna take a quick aside here and just explain this because I think some people like to argue that Jesus never explicitly said that he was God. Um you hear this from uh like other different faiths, like they'll say, Well, Jesus never said he was God. He did. He told the chief priests, you know, before Abraham was, I am. Um, but it actually also ignores the entire context of the New Testament. Like Jesus was fully God. Um I want you to think about it this way. If you have a boss, does your boss have to remind you all the time that they're your boss? Like, do they have to tell you, like, you know I'm the boss? Right? They don't do that, do they? They don't send emails and say, I'm sending you this email because I'm the boss, I'm in charge of your department. But you wouldn't argue that they're your boss either, would you? No? Okay. So I bet your boss's office is a little bit bigger than yours, isn't it? Yes? I bet your boss makes a little bit more significant decisions than you do. I bet when the boss does make decisions, they get carried out for the most part. I bet the boss is getting the honor that bosses should get. I bet he's doing the work that bosses should do, and I bet they're sitting in the seat that bosses should sit in. Yes? Okay, so there's this great this great picture. See, Jesus does all those same things that God does. There's a great acrostic I'm gonna teach you if anybody ever argues with you that Jesus was was God or Jesus never said he was God. It's it's really simple. This is the quickest side. So John knew Jesus was God in the womb, right? Womb to womb, John, John's mom and Mary, they're there, and the baby leaps, is like, oh, that's God. Like Mary knew Jesus was God at Cana before he done any miracles. Jesus knew he was God, he stayed at the temple like I'm in my father's house when he was like 12 years old. Everybody knew Jesus was God. So multiple times, directly and indirectly, Jesus tells us by receiving the honor of God, that's the first thing. Jesus receives the honor multiple times. He gets praise all the time. If Jesus wasn't saying I'm God, he would not have let people praise him and worship him as God. Amen. So he has the honor of God, he has the attributes of God, the way that he behaved himself and displayed himself to humanity. He had the attributes of God, H A. Then he he had the names of God. We see that as well. He he received the same honor from the naming of God. He did the deeds of God. Consistently, he did the deeds of God, and now he sits in the seat of God. Amen. We just read that. So Jesus is fully God. That being the case, though, let's go back to Philippians. That being the case, Jesus actually emptied himself and took the form of a man. Think about that. Like, I actually don't like the word the ESV uses because empty makes it sound like he became less God. That's actually a less accurate way to translate it. The King James Version says it this way that he made himself no reputation. So he could have made himself a full reputation, but he made himself of no reputation. He humbled himself. He operated in this world not from his deity, but rather from communion with the Father. This is what's so cool. If you go to verse 8, we got it on the screen there. It says, So being in form fully God, when he found himself in human fashion, being found in human form, he's like, Oh, I'm a man. It almost makes it sound like it's a surprise. Like, I found myself in human form. That's not that's not really what's that he's saying. Like, I'm a human form. What did he do? And if Jesus did it when he found he was a human, we should probably. I do it. He humbled himself and became obedient. So if we are also humans and we're definitely not God like Jesus was, that's what we should do too. Being founded human form, what should I do? I should humble myself. Like a lot of times we we have these ideas of what about what it means to be a man or a woman of God. This is what it means to be a man or a woman of God. To humble yourself and be obedient. And Jesus was obedient even to the point of death, death even on a cross. So cool. He could have led, most people don't realize this. Jesus could have led from a place of his deity, but the place that Jesus led from and ministered from was a place of his humanity, walking in communion with the Holy Spirit and the Father. And he's saying, this is why he said, like, you can do greater works than I did. That's why he's saying that not because we're greater than him, not at all. He's saying, look, I'm just doing what the Father's doing. I'm just being obedient. This is what a human does. You walk full of the Spirit, and these crazy, amazing, great things are gonna happen. He showed us what life was supposed to be like if you're fully submitted to God. So cool. So cool. All right. Starting to slow down a little bit. Getting full. Beef rib, filet, lobster bisque, salad. I gotta go back just for a little bit. Fourth trip, verse 12. He says, Therefore, my beloved, as you've always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, this is a hard one. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it's God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. This sounds a little bit contradictory. Okay? So I'm gonna unpack it some. What he's saying is he's saying, therefore, in light of, in light of all these things I shared with you, wrestle with your salvation condition. Wrestle with it. Paul is telling us here not to work with our hands. That's not what he's saying. He's not saying like physically wrestle. He's saying work. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. The word of God says the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. You want to be wise? Have a healthy fear of God. It's a good thing to have a healthy fear of the Lord because He is completely unique and holy and other than us. He is so, so much more powerful and magnificent and awesome than we are. We should have a healthy, holy fear of God. I think much of the world has lost a fear of God, and I shudder to think what's going to happen when God reminds us just who he is and just how powerful he is. And again, he's not saying work for your salvation. It's a really, really important distinction. He's saying work out what God has already worked in you. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, okay? So, so my apologies. He says, like earning your salvation, it's impossible. You can't do it, I can't do it, can't nobody do it? But expressing your salvation, that is expected. Every single one of us, you you can't work out something that doesn't exist, okay? We're gonna reveal the thing that God's already put in us by working it out with some fear and trembling. We're gonna bring it to maturity. Seeds work out into trees. If someone has a talent, it works out into an athletic ability on the court or on the field. And listen, salvation works out into a life well lived before God. That's what happens. Work it out with some fear and trembling. Man, Paul, he gives us this challenge as attention not to get lazy in our faith before the Lord. He's telling us, like, labor over this. If you were to ask yourself, just honestly, honestly assess where you're at. Have you been grieved over your sin? Have you labored over it to the point of fear and trembling? I'll tell you, there was one point in my life I um I was starting to think I was kind of a big deal. And it was like almost 20 years ago. I was leading in my church, I was like leading the ministry, and somebody called me. Um the church was doing something unique. They were like installing flock pastors, what they called them. And and I knew because I'd heard like, oh, they're gonna call some people and ask them to come up and get anointed and take this special role of leadership. And I just knew they were gonna call me. And and they did. One of the pastors called me and he was like, hey, Jake, um, we're installing flock pastors. We'd really like for you and Danielle to consider doing that. I was like, yeah, yeah, I'll do that. I got off the phone with him, and this holy conviction hit my soul. I mean, just like a ton of bricks. I was driving on I-95, commuting south from Quantico, and it hit me. When I got home, I actually I walked in, we had a room, we had a little ottoman, and I just fell on my face and just started grieving before the Lord, like, how dare I think? Like, I'm I'm so worthy, like I'm so good, like I deserve this. And God would just remind me, like, hey, but for me, this is where you would be. And I started remembering some of the things that He delivered me from, some of the choices that I made in the past that that weren't worthy of a flock pastor, right? Man, I I'm telling you, God was working out in me in that moment with some fear, with some trembling, with some tears. There was a point, honestly, where I would say, I don't even know if I was saved before that moment. Because I I had I had forgotten how much I needed Jesus. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Don't treat your salvation too casually because you'll you'll get spiritually shallow if you do. So I'm gonna lose some of you here on the next verse, verse 13. It's interesting because, see, lest you get arrogant and think your salvation comes from the working out, and and and you put it in your own heart because you're such a good person, Paul says, it's God who works in you both to will, like God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So it's not you that actually does the good stuff. Even the will to do it comes from God. That's so good. If you want God, he's the one that started the desire. If you're growing, he's the initiator. If you feel conviction, that means he's active in your heart. You don't generate spiritual life, you respond to spiritual life. And this gets to the first verse we discussed today. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel. Wrestle with fear and trembling over that proposition. Um, one of the things that I love, um, my pastor gave this to me several years ago. He said, Live your life like salvation depends on you. Believe like it depends on God. Right? Like just believe, believe like it depends on God, because it does. It's only Him. But live your life in such a way like it depends on you. It's a healthy tension. All right. Last trip to the buffet. Last trip, all right? Um I'm about to look like a food blister walking out of here because it's such good stuff. All right, here we go. Um verse 14. Do all things without grumbling or disputing. That you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I didn't run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I'm poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I'm glad and I rejoice with you all. Likewise, you should all be glad and rejoice with me. We're all probably super full at this point. Maybe the Holy Spirit's already spoken to you. There are probably at least a couple people here who you came for this word. Stop complaining. Can you just stop complaining? And notice he doesn't say do some things. He doesn't say do church. He doesn't say do family. He says, do all. You may need to underline that if you have a Bible. All things. I actually I recited this verse. I have uh a bunch of boys in the neighborhood that I get together, and we kind of like I'm trying to sort of mentor them a little bit. And I was talking to him, and one of them was getting a little snarky, and he was like complaining. I was taking him to see a movie, and um, he was complaining about something, and I was like, hey, you know, there's this Bible verse that I make my boys memorize, and I think it'd be good for all of you guys to memorize this. Do all things without grumbling or complaining. Everything. It's not just about the daily stuff, it's about the big stuff too. So have this high view of God's sovereignty that He's in control, He's working things out for good, for your good, for the good of everybody around you, and stop having such a negative attitude about everything you see and experience in the world. Listen, there's plenty of things you can be negative about. Just stop complaining. Actually, like, it changes your mind when you think more positively than negatively. There's this doctor's name is Dr. Amen. And um, my wife follows him, and I follow him too. And he actually they did studies on brains, and brains that that deliberately forced themselves to think positively when they were in negative patterns, if they just woke up and they deliberately were like, no, I'm gonna say this positive thought instead of a negative thought, it rewired your brain. Like they did brain scans on people, and when they stopped complaining and started like being positive, it changed the way that their mind worked. And in our church, one of the things I love is I feel like we're we're mostly a low drama church. You know, it's it's nice to be in a low drama environment. Listen, we don't just want to be low drama people. Some of us we're high maintenance people. It's like, oh, I don't really want to do that. You can make me come down front to do communion? Can you just hand it to me? Or why are we meeting here? Or why, like, you complain about where you're gonna eat, you complain about the outfit you gotta wear, you complain about the weather, like ever there's there's always a reason you could have to complain. I think God is calling us not just to be not high maintenance people and not even low maintenance people, he's calling us to be negative maintenance people. And what that means is when other people are complaining, you change the temperature. You're like, oh, hey, but you know what? That's actually gonna be a good thing. Like, let's do it. What if it, you like you give them some sort of a positive way to look at it? Stop complaining, shift the perspective just a little bit. That's that's one of the things that Paul's saying. He's like, look, I stop complaining lest all the work that I did is in vain. Like I came and I labored with you. And he's writing this from prison, okay? Paul writing from prison is telling them to stop complaining. It hits a little different. Hits a little different. As we close, so I'm gonna I'm gonna go back to the start, to the main course, the fillet. Only let your life be worthy. Walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. If each of us could live our lives in such a way to make that true, man, it would be a life well lived. Can I close with a story? You guys okay with the story? Yes? Good, because I'm gonna share it anyways. Um so World War II, big war, lots of stuff happening. There were a couple instances where um several brothers died. Um the Sullivans in 1943, there were five brothers, they asked to be put on the same ship together, and they uh the ship went down. And the president actually wrote a letter to the family and said, like, I'm so sorry. They actually named a ship after them called USS The Sullivans afterwards. There was another incident after the Normandy invasion where there were four brothers who different areas, but it looked like they were all very, very close to dying. So um they were the Nyland brothers. There were four brothers from New York, Robert, Preston, Edward, and Fritz Nylon. Robert and Preston, they died in Normandy. Edward was shot down over Burma and they thought that he was dead, and Fritz was actually fighting in France. So the president ordered a special expedition to go get Fritz. Find Fritz, get him back to the States because we don't want another USS Sullivan's event. We don't want one family to have to sacrifice so much. Some of you have seen this movie. It's based on this story, Saving Private Ryan. It's a great story, but it's a big real life experience. And what you see is there are these soldiers. Tom Hanks is kind of the captain, he's the leader of this expedition. They go and they find Fritz, aka Private Ryan. They find him, and it's through through loss, like some of their guys die. But they find him and they're like, we're gonna get him home. We're gonna get him home to his family. At the end of the movie, Tom Hanks is mortally wounded, and he grabs Fritz. He grabs Private Ryan, and he looks at him and he says, Earn this! Earn this. He fast forward to the very last scene, and you've got Fritz, Private Ryan. He's in the cemetery, and he's at Tom Hanks' grave, and he's looking, he's talking to his wife, and he asks her, have I been a good man? Am I a good man? She's like, of course you're a good man. He looks he looks down at the grave and he's like, Man, I've tried. I've tried to earn this. I've tried. I think it's it's a little bit of a ridiculous proposition to earn something like that. But what Paul is saying and what the movie is trying to capture is to live your life in such a way that the sacrifice of Jesus is not in vain. Paul's writing this letter to saying, like, man, if I'm offered on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I want it to be something that's worth it. That I didn't run in vain, that I didn't labor in vain. He's saying, Man, I have suffered on behalf of you and the integrity of the gospel message. Can you live a life like you? Can never earn what Jesus did. And Fritz, Ryan, they could never earn the sacrifice of those guys. We can never earn what Jesus did for us. What we can do though, and what as believers we should consistently, continually have before us is am I walking in a manner that honors what my Lord did for me? Am I honoring him today? And some of you've got things in your life, you're like, man, I know that this is not the most honoring. Like, I'm actually not honoring God in this. This is not a worthy way for me to live. And some of you maybe, I pray you're very encouraged by this. Like, no, like I'm like every day I'm getting up and I'm like, Lord, what does it mean to walk worthy? That's how we should be thinking about life. But I just I just want to challenge us today. Let this buffet here, let it just work its way out in you, that the fruit of it is honor. Honor for Jesus' sacrifice, honor for what the witnesses of the New Testament have given us, honor for what what the other believers, the foundation of faith that they've laid for us. Amen? Amen. Let's bow our heads. If you're here today and you you know that you've been living a life that might be falling short of honor. Like, man, there's some things I know the Holy Spirit's challenged me on that I need to work out. There needs to be a little bit of fear and trembling in my soul over this. If that's you today, I'm just I'm gonna lead us in a prayer. And maybe, maybe you're a believer already, but you know there's some potholes in your soul that you need to let the Holy Spirit fill in. And what I'd love for you to do, just as an act of of faith, just a step towards God, an act of obedience, just slip your hand up. Like, no, that's me. Like, I I got some stuff. I need to work out a little bit more. Yeah? Come on. I know that there are people here. You feel challenged, you feel convicted by the Holy Spirit, not by me. Yeah, anybody else? Come on, yeah, there's more. I know there's more of us here. And listen, you're putting your hand up to God, you're not putting your hand up to me. All right. I want to pray for us today. Lord, God, we love you. And Father, if there are places, if there are areas where we've walked, where we have not, we've not honored you, Lord, we just commit ourselves right now. Man of church, can we just do this together? Let's all commit ourselves, Lord. We're gonna honor you with our lives. We are gonna walk like every step, one foot in front of the other. I'm gonna walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which I've been called. Every day, every single day, God. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for what you've done for me, Lord. God, I thank you personally, God, just for Jake Johnson, what you've done for me, Lord. I thank you for your sacrifice, God. Thank you for blessing this church, blessing these people, God. Everybody in the sound of my voice right now, God, online listening. Lord God, we thank you for the work that you've done in us, God. Now work it out of us, Lord. Work it out of us, God. May it be visible, may we may we walk as citizens worthy of your gospel, Lord. May it be visible, Lord. Not because we're trying to get accolades, God, but because we're trying to point people to a glorious, loving God whose name is above every name in heaven and on earth and under the earth. Be praised, Jesus. Be praised in our life. And everybody said, Amen.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

Thank you for listening to the Mana Church Stafford Podcast. If you would like to connect with us, you can find us on the web at manastafford.church or download the Mana Church app to listen to our new episodes as they become available. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast. We would also love to meet you in person. If you are local, our services take place each Sunday at 10 a.m. We pray you have an amazing week, and we'll see you next time.