Working Out Your Salvation Series

Opener:

Welcome and good morning everyone ! So blessed to see everyone here today! If you do not know me, my name is Pastor Steven and I am one of the Pastors here at Family of Christ.

We started a new sermon series last week on the book of Philippians and it was a tremendous start to this wonderful book. As you may recall, last week we were learned about how Paul started this church around 50 A. D during his second missionary journey. As a result of this, this church had a strong connection with Paul and would send financial help when needed. In Chapter one, Paul encourages the believers in Philippi to continue to press on during the difficult times they were facing and that God loves and rejoices over them. We talked about how our loss may lead to others gain and that it is a privilege to suffer for the cause of Christ.

This morning, we are continuing to work our way through the book of Philippians. We are going to be talking about chapter two.

Before we get too far ahead, I want to share about the northern lights which are a natural phenomenon. They are the result of gaseous particles that form between the Earth and sun and then collide with one another. The product of this collision is a pale yellowish green color that occurs in the earth’s atmosphere. These lights of the Aurora borealis display themselves 50 -400 miles above the earth’s surface.

If that does not amaze you, look at the stars that are on display in the sky on a clear night. A star is a luminous ball of gas that is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium. The closest star that is to us is actually the sun. Researches hypothesize that stars can last a few million years all the way up to billions of years long.

Just like the stars in the sky, we are called to shine Christ’s light through our lives. We shine like those stars when we walk humbly with the Lord and prioritize His interest higher then ours.

As we look at chapter two, there is a major theme that runs through this chapter and that is Paul was encouraging the church to grow to maturity in their faith. As we look at this more closely, there are three themes that push towards that goal which is to work in unity, that we have work to do on ourselves and we are to offer ourselves sacrificially.

I. Unity

A. Wrong kind of unity

a. Paul in the opening thoughts of this chapter really stresses to the church in Philippi to work together in unity.

b. Let’s hop right into our text this morning, starting with verse one (Philippians 2:1-2) NKJV - Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

c. Here Paul is clearly expressing the importance of unity in the church. There is power when you and I operate together in true unity with one another and as a church.

d. The unity that Paul was talking about here for the church was not based on having just an organizational unity. While that is good on some levels.

e. The unity that Paul was talking about was much deeper than that, it was one really speaking to having a spiritual unity.

f. An organization unity is based on the surface. Yes, there is a sense of togetherness and cooperation, and that is good, however, Paul was talking about being unity for divine purposes.

B. Right kind of unity

a. Having the right unity is not something complex, rather, it is quite simple.

b. The first part of even being capable of operating in unity with others is that individually you need to be operating in unity with Christ.

c. Then and only then can you truly operate in unity with others. The unity that we then have is based on our mutual affection of what Christ did on the cross for us.

d. Paul was calling the Philippians and us this morning to live our lives that look like Jesus. He was sharing with them that in order to be operating as the body of Christ that we need to have the mind of Christ.

e. We do this by emptying ourselves, laying aside our egos, pride and idols and humbly walking in the Spirit.

f. Jesus in His prayer for the disciples recognized the importance of unity that He prayed the following in John 17:11 NKJV : 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.