Omc: Family Chapel

As Paul wraps up his letter to the Philippians, he thanks his friends for their generous support and takes some time to encourage them to rightly handle money. In this passage, Paul gives two general guidelines of good stewardship: satisfaction in Jesus and sacrifice for Jesus. When we are satisfied in Christ, we will see that Jesus is enough in our need and enough in our abundance. And when we sacrifice for Jesus, we will see that generous giving is for Kingdom work, is for our own growth, is an act of worship, and is a response to God's generosity. May we be good stewards of God's gifts!

When it comes to sharing life together in the church, conflict is not a question of “if” but of “when”. But how are we to resolve conflict? Instead of faking peace or breaking peace, we are called to move towards making peace. And here, Paul gives us five steps of peace making: commence with adoration, check your attitude, combat your anxiety, center your attention, and commit to action. As those who have received peace from Christ, we are called to make peace with other Christians.

Christians find themselves living in a weird in-between time period, where on the one hand, they are saved in Christ, but on the other hand, they have not yet fully experienced salvation. Theologians call this in-between time period the "already-not yet". And in this time period, we may feel this tension that says: "I'm already in God's Kingdom, so why should I exert any effort?" And so, we may find ourselves not really pursuing after Christ. But in our passage, we'll see that in this already-not yet period, Christians should press into godly dissatisfaction and press on towards God’s Kingdom completion. They can press in and press on by running behind mentors and keeping their eyes on the prize. 

Our passage is on Philippians 3:1-11. Here, Paul begins a new section, and talks to the church about the issue of false Jewish teachers who are advocating circumcision of the flesh as a requirement to be accepted as God’s people. We will see through Paul that it is not anything in the flesh which determines who has access to God, but only those who place their full confidence in Christ and walk by the Spirit. There is nothing in ourselves worth boasting about; our greatest confidence in life comes from knowing Christ Jesus.

With this passage, we see what godly Christian leaders look like. They look like Jesus, in that godly leaders are selfless and godly leaders are sacrificial. And in response to the godly leaders we have in our lives, we are are to rejoice over them and we are to honor them.

With this passage, we see that as Christians, we are to pursue sanctification by our effort through God's power. And we pursue sanctification in order to brightly stand out before the world and to rightly stand up before Christ.

In this passage, we arrive at one of the most beautiful descriptions of humility seen in Christ. With this passage, Paul exhorts Christians to have the same humility as Christ, as it is seen in his incarnation and in his crucifixion. Humility is the way of God’s kingdom!

Here in our passage, Paul reminds us of our Christian citizenship. As Christian citizens, we are to live in line with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. WHAT that looks like is standing firm in unity before a hostile world full of tempting compromises. WHY we do that is because we have been called to suffer for Christ's sake in advancing the Gospel. HOW we do that well is by putting on humility. In other words: Christians are to stand together with unity in the face of hostility by putting on humility.

In our passage, we see that though Paul is still in prison, he is supremely confident of his deliverance. While many today may assume the deliverance he speaks of is freedom from prison, we see that true deliverance in Paul's eyes is the ability to live honoring Christ, whether it be in life or in death. As we live in a culture today that is so wrapped up around personal accomplishment, achievement, and success, it is essential that we hear Paul's words to remind us of our ultimate aim, which is to glorify God and lead others to glory in Him as well. We can rejoice in the quagmires of life because our future is clear - whether in life or death, we gain Christ.

In this passage, we see the Gospel advance in an unexpected way while Paul is in prison. Unplanned inconveniences are unexpected opportunities for the unstoppable Gospel to advance. We need to recognize and embrace those life interruptions as God-given means to see his Gospel spread through our lives.

In the final sermon in our Daniel series, we see that we are often placed in situations where we must chose between following God and following the ways of the world. There is opposition in the path of obeying God. What do we do when these opposing forces threaten to throw us in the "lion's den"? The answer starts with acknowledging that God's purposes and plans cannot be thwarted, and that all opposition will one day crumble. Knowing this, we can respond to opposition by seeking to good to all, and by being faithful in walking with the Lord.

In this passage, we see that God is the righteous Judge. And in a world of injustice, the righteous Judge will bring justice. And that is a good thing (God has an answer for evil). But, we also have to recognize that we too are in danger of judgment. But in Christ, we receive rescue from judgment because Christ has been judged on our behalf. In the Gospel, we see the the righteous Judge deal with our injustice in a totally amazing way, which now frees us to pursue justice in this world.

In this passage, we see how God responds to our pride. God's solution to the problem of our pride is found in calling us to repentance, humbling us, and restoring us. And in Christ, we see God's ultimate solution in the true King humbling Himself to bring proud sinners into His Kingdom.

In this Sunday's passage, we see how we are to respond to the pressures of false worship in our world. Instead of giving in to the pressure of false worship, we should worship the true God alone, even if it costs us everything, because God alone is worthy of worship. And in Christ, we see that our costly worship is worth it because our God who paid the cost is worthy.

In this passage, we see that the God of heaven to whom alone belongs wisdom and power can reveal the hidden mystery concerning the future. He is the Revealer of mystery because He is the Ruler of history. And God is at work in history to bring about His Kingdom that will rule over the nations!

We are launching into our new series through the first 6 chapters of Daniel. This Sunday, we looked at Daniel 1:1-21. Here, we are introduced to the difficult situation the people of God find themselves in - exile in Babylon. In this foreign land, there is great pressure to compromise in order to achieve success. But here in chapter 1, we see that in our pursuit of success in the world, we must not compromise holiness before God. In fact, success in the world begins with surrender before God.

This Sunday, we looked at what wisdom looks like in how we use our words. We are to use our words wisely because words are powerful - they either bring life or they bring death. To use our words wisely, we need to use our words carefully, truthfully, and constructively. And at the end of the day, if we want to have life-giving words come out of our mouths, we need to have the Living Word come and transform our hearts.