Skip to content Joy in the Upward Call of God | Philippians Part 08 | Rev Paul Jeyachandran Jul 14 · 1 hr 3 min ...more
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Rev. Paul Jeyachandran leads the Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) Movement, which is all about calling churches back to its disciplemaking roots. Visit us at idmcmovement.com
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0:00 Joy in the upward call of God. Philippians chapter 3 and verses 12 to verses 21. What we are going to do today is ask this fundamental0:12 question that is vital for discipleship. Why do people grow spiritually cold and fall away from discipleship? It all boils down to 3 things: complacency,0:24 compromise, and carelessness. Paul in this text from Philippians chapter 3 verse 12 to 21 gives us 3 key things that could act as0:36 a spiritual impetus for us in our discipleship. So let's look at the 3 things and then we will unpack. The first 1 is don't settle into complacency.0:48 Press on, Paul says, from verse 12 to verse 14, 1 thing I do, which is to press on, Paul says. Secondly, don't steer into compromise.1:00 Hold true, he says, from verse 15 to verse 19. Only let us hold true. The third thing he says is, don't sink into carelessness. Wait for, In other words, we1:12 await a savior from verse 20 to verse 21. Firstly, let's look at this. Why do people grow spiritually cold and fall away from discipleship?1:23 It is because of complacency. No wonder Paul writes here about his own personal testimony in chapter 3, and he continues to talk about this in verse 12 all the way to verse1:35 14. Let's read it. In verse 12 he says, Not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made1:47 me his own. Verse 13, brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but 1 thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies1:59 ahead. And verse 14, I press on toward the goal for the price of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. In this passage of Scripture, Paul compares spiritual2:11 life with a race. He compares our spiritual growth as running a race and here Paul uses an athlete as a metaphor and he2:23 gives us a truth for us to consider. He says, not that I have obtained, verse 12. In verse 13 he says, I do not consider that I have obtained.2:34 Twice he talks about, I have not arrived. Now you and I have to ask this question, what is it that Paul says that he has not arrived? You know Paul is the 1 in chapter 32:46 of Philippians gives us his personal testimony as a Christian. As a disciple of Christ, he considers everything that he used to be under the Judaistic law,2:59 under the Judaism, under following the law of Moses. He considers all of that as rubbish and dung, but when he comes into Christian faith, he says, I do not3:11 stand in my own effort. I stand in the grace of God. Look at what Paul writes in Philippians chapter 3 verses 8 all the way to verse 11 because that is in the3:22 context of what he shares here. Look at it in verse 8 he says, I count everything as lost. What is it? My previous way of living life. I consider that as loss. What was the previous kind3:34 of life? Previous way of life was a way of obeying the law. He actually states about himself, according to the righteousness of the law, he was3:46 blameless. In other words, he was a man who had no fault, he kept the law but yet he says, keeping all that law, I consider it as loss.3:57 Why? Because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. That is the life of a disciple. When you make a decision to follow Christ, you want to know Christ. Why?4:09 Because your righteousness is not in your works anymore, it is in Him. Hallelujah. Remember this, in discipleship we always talk about the 4 movements. The first movement is4:21 through Him we are saved. We are saved for Him. We walk with Him every single day in intimacy, and we live life in Him4:33 because in Him we have everything. No wonder Paul goes on to say, I consider all of them as rubbish so that I may gain Christ. Verse 9, he says, I want to be found in Christ.4:45 Why? Because in Christ I have a righteousness that I did not work for. In Christ I have a righteousness that comes purely by faith in Him. Hallelujah. A righteousness from God that4:56 comes to me by faith in Jesus Christ. Here is Paul in his life journey. He says, I want to know Christ verse 10. His goal in life is I want to know5:08 Christ. I want to know His power of His resurrection and I want to become like Him in His death. Share partnership in His sufferings. Now we already summarized this5:20 passage last week, the last time we studied, and we said this, chapter 3 verse 9 is justification of a believer. Chapter 3 verse 10 is5:32 sanctification of a believer. Chapter 3 verse 11 is glorification of a believer. Paul says here, I have already been justified by faith.5:44 His righteousness is now given to me. I have His righteousness. It I don't work for it. I received it by faith. But then he says, I want to know Him because that is His righteousness.5:57 I want to know more and more of Him. I want to know more about Christ and the power of the resurrection. Why does he talk about the power of resurrection? See, you and I, we need to understand we are6:09 living between 2 events. The first event is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He rose from the dead and He is transformed into a glorious body and you and I are expecting that6:21 glorious body 1 day. We are looking forward to our own individual resurrection. Hallelujah. We live between these 2 eras, the resurrection of Christ to the resurrection of our self.6:32 Paul says, I want to know him. I want to live with the power of the resurrection for every single day and I look forward to the resurrection from the dead. That is verse 11. That's the glorification of a6:44 believer. Here he says in verse 12, not that I have attained it, not that I'm already perfect. What does he mean by I haven't attained? I haven't attained6:56 that glorification. In other words, I haven't come out of the dead. I haven't been resurrected from the dead. My body hasn't been transformed into a glorious body. That is 1 day the future hope of a believer.7:08 Glorification. The Bible says, if you go with me to, first John chapter 3 verse 2 and verse 3. Look at this. First John chapter 2 first John chapter 3 verse 2,7:20 beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him. Hallelujah. In other7:31 words, when Jesus comes back, when the return of the savior happens, you and I, we will look just like Him. In other words, we will be in a glorified state just like Jesus was raised from the dead into a7:43 glorified body. You and I, we will be raised from the dead and we will have a glorified body. But if you are still alive, your body will be transformed, the Bible says. That is how we will be in the7:55 future. But Paul says, I have not attained that now. That is why even in this passage of Scripture, look at what it says in verse 3, Because we shall see Him as He is and everyone who thus hopes in8:07 Him purify himself as He is pure. In other words, you will 1 day be like Jesus, totally look like Him, but today you are not.8:19 In other words, you are a work in progress. That is what the believers call the sanctification of a believer, isn't it? You and I, we are sanctified every single day that we can become Christ like in the way we are.8:30 Hallelujah. Paul has this in mind and he says, I haven't attained that yet. So what do I do? I have to be aware that I haven't attained. See, part of the8:42 problem with complacency is this, complacency begins with presumptuousness. We kind of settle down because we think, I'm saved now. I'm okay. I will be in heaven8:54 now. See, can I humbly say this, you are not perfect yet? You are not Christ like yet. You are a follower of Christ. You need to allow Him to master your life. You need to9:06 be Christ mastered every single day until He reworks your mind. He transforms your heart until you become Christ like. That is the goal of discipleship, but sometimes we9:18 take it so we become complacent. Why? Because we presume this is what it is. I've already saved. I'm secure. I'll get to heaven. Sometimes you will hear certain false9:30 teachers teach like this, because you are saved by grace and not by your effort, you don't need to put any effort in. Can I humbly say this, grace is not opposed to9:41 effort? Grace is only opposed to earning. Dallas Willard said that. I want you to listen to me carefully. Grace is not opposed to effort, only to9:53 earning. In other words, you and I have to put an effort, discipline ourselves in order for us to press on to become more and more like Christ. What is that? That is the pathway of sanctification.10:05 That's the pathway to become spiritually mature. That is what Paul says here. He says, I want to become like that. Why this should be the goal of every believer? Do you know that this is the destiny10:17 of every believer? When you get saved, what is the destiny that God chose you for? To be a preacher, to be a missionary, to do this? That's part and puzzle of the purpose of God for your life, but the ultimate10:29 destiny that God has for every disciple is this Romans 8 29, the Bible says, To be conformed to the image of His Son. You and I, we are predestined to be10:40 conformed to the image of His Son and God will do this 1 way or another. Whether by hook or by crook, you are going to be conformed to the image of his son. Some people10:52 will be dragged through discipline for them to become like Christ, but for some they voluntarily willingly sacrificially surrender themselves and come and conform to11:04 the image of his son. No wonder Paul writes and he says, I want to know him. I want to know his power because the more I rely on his power, he keeps changing in my life and then I will become like11:16 him. Hallelujah. But this awareness is so important for us church. I want to give you 2 things from this passage of scripture that Paul talks about. 1 is a humble awareness, I haven't arrived. That's why you and I,11:28 we need to continually have this humility of heart that we haven't arrived, so therefore we work hard in continuing to grow in what Christ has done for us. Ask yourself, this COVID season, how11:39 have you grown spiritually? What did you do as an effort to help yourself to grow in Christ likeness? How was your prayer life? How was your Bible reading? How was your fellowship with other11:51 believers? How is there a deep hunger for the deep things of God? Or is this a season where you became complacent and assumed, oh, it should be okay. I'm fine by the grace of God. Can I humbly say this? Let12:03 let's look at what Paul says. Paul says, I have not arrived, but what do I do? I press on. Twice he says. In verse 12, he says, I press on. And in verse 14, he says, I press on.12:14 Hallelujah. That's what you and I are supposed to do. You know, Hebrews chapter 12 and verses 1 to 2, the apostle who wrote Hebrews, we don't know who it is, I might suspect it's12:26 Paul, but here he says, since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witness, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely to us. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.12:38 See, you and I, we need to run the race that is set before us. There is a race that is set for us. You are in this race. So you need to take that race and say, Lord I put aside every12:50 weight. I need to prepare myself. I need to go through that the process of preparing myself and run this race in order that I may win. Looking unto Jesus verse 2 says, the13:01 author and finisher of our faith. There is another passage of Scripture, 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and verses 24 to 27. Paul writes and he says about the runner. He says,13:13 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only 1 receives the price, so run that you may obtain it. You and I need to recognize that we are in a race and in the race we need to run to win and Paul looks at13:25 all these athletes in Rome, he looks at all the athletes in all the Roman colonies, They prepare themselves. Look at what he says in verse 25. He says, every athlete exercises self control.13:37 This is the season for us to exercise self control. Know, this is not the season for us to just let go of everything. All the spiritual disciplines are gone. All the spiritual habits are gone and now all we do13:49 is vegetate before Netflix. Wrong. He says every athlete exercises self control in all things. This is the season for us to do that. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable wreath.14:01 In other words, we receive a crown from the king. And verse 26, he goes on to say, they So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as 1 beating the air. In other words, I don't just while away14:12 time. I don't just live carelessly or aimlessly. I discipline my body and keep it under control lest I preach to others and my myself should be disqualified. Listen to what Paul14:24 says, I want to run the race. I want to finish the race well. Don't be complacent. Press on, Paul says. You know in our city we have an14:36 annual event. I don't think it happened this year, but every year there is an annual event called City to Surf Marathon. And I've always noticed because it happens on Sundays,14:48 I don't pay attention to it, we don't run, we don't participate. But we usually look at that, there's always 2 groups of people in any marathon, especially in the city to surf because you start from a15:00 nice place and you end up in Bondi Beach, it's beautiful, isn't it? And this is what it is. 2 groups of people will run-in a marathon. 1, people who are serious runners. They are the ones who are ahead. They are standing15:11 in the They are standing to They can't wait to run the race. They have prepared themselves mentally, physically. They are fit and they are ready. They know what to expect. They know what the turns and they have memorized15:22 the maps and they are ready to run. They are standing, are waiting eagerly to run. Then there is the second group, not the serious runners but the slackers. These are the runners who15:34 stand at the back. These are the people who came for the fun of it. They came so that they can take some selfie and put some Facebook post and say, look what I'm doing on a Sunday morning. What they're interested is in15:46 sitting in a cafes, cafe somewhere after an hour or maybe half an hour and then have their latte. That's all they are interested in. They are just there to see the fun and be a spectator sport. Listen to me carefully.15:57 You and I, we need to be serious runners. That's what Paul says here. Now why is this important pastor? This is important because Paul says, this is the 1 thing I do. Listen to me.16:09 But 1 thing I do. You and I, we have not arrived. It has to give us this humble awareness. I haven't arrived. I need to run my race. But it also have to give you a godly ambition to say, this16:21 1 thing I do. Can I humbly say this church? What is the 1 thing that will characterize your life in this season? Because the life of a disciple is always about that 1 thing.16:32 David writes and says, this 1 thing I ask of the Lord. Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. This 1 thing. Moses wrote in Deuteronomy, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your16:43 soul, with all your strength, with all your might. 1 thing. Let your heart be about 1 thing. In Paul, Paul writes in Philippians and he says, this 1 thing I do. In other words, the life of a believer is16:55 a single-minded pursuit of 1 thing. What is that? Christ Jesus. That's what it is in the context. Paul says, I pursue Christ. I want to know Him because I live in Him and with Him because I17:07 live for Him because I am saved through Him. This passage of Scripture is so gospel centered that you need to understand this truth. Paul17:19 writes and he says in verse 12, look at it 1 more time, towards the second part of verse 12 he says, because, because, what is that because? Because Christ Jesus17:31 has made me his own. That's the gospel truth. The gospel truth is Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. I now no longer belong to myself. I'm now redeemed. Cued. I'm now17:43 delivered. I'm now saved. I'm now part of an eternal kingdom. I belong to Christ. I love that language. Christ Jesus has made me his own. In another translation, it says, Christ Jesus17:55 laid hold of me. That very word laid hold or made me is the word for a battle. In a battle, it's a language of a battle where you capture18:07 the enemy or it's a language of fishing where you cast a net and you catch a fish. That means you seize it and that's exactly what Paul is saying. Come, Jesus Christ came and18:19 he seized me. I was running away from him. He came after me and he seized me. He laid hold of me. He captured me and now I belong to him. Therefore, I press on to make it my own. In other18:30 words, now I run. In verse 12, he says, I press on to make it my own. In other words, now I run to capture him, to make him my own. That's a beautiful picture of the18:42 gospel. See, whenever you talk about gospel, I already said to you there are 3 things you have to understand about the gospel. Number 1, gospel is a message to believe. Christ Jesus has made me His own. That's the18:54 message. You got to believe. Secondly, gospel is the person to receive. You got to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is now my rightful owner. He is my Lord, my King, my Master, my Redeemer, my Savior.19:06 He is my everything. A person to receive and acknowledge in your life as Lord. Thirdly, it is a life to live. You and I, we need to understand gospel means that19:18 there is a life that I am called to live now. I cannot live carelessly. I cannot be complacent. I want to lay hold of Christ for the purpose for which He laid hold of me. Whenever you19:30 talk about the Gospel and I know some of you aspire to be gospel centered in your life and I commend you for that, you need to understand there is a gospel indicative and there is a19:41 gospel imperative. Gospel indicative is what the Bible indicates about my life, what the Bible says about me. I am no longer mine. I belong to Christ. Hallelujah. That is the gospel19:53 indicative. You belong to Him. You have another owner. Secondly, gospel imperative. What is that? It is that I am now challenged to live by faith in His righteousness, but I20:05 am called to be sanctified. I am called to become Christ like. Therefore now I put effort in training myself, disciplining myself, self control. I want to grow This is something you20:17 and I have to understand. The motivation why we put effort is different. For Paul it's very clear. He had the same ambition when he was a Judaistic believer.20:29 Under Judaism, he strived. He put a lot of effort. He disciplined himself so that he can fulfill the law in order to be righteous, in order to gain acceptance. But now he says, I still want to20:41 be righteous, but I put the effort not because I want to earn the I am already righteous, but I want to live the righteousness. Hallelujah. The reason, the motivation is different here. Listen to me carefully.20:53 Why is this so important? Imagine a son cleaning the backyard together with the father. He is cleaning the backyard. 1, maybe because the father promised him pocket money. So maybe for the pocket money,21:05 he is cleaning the yard with the father. That is to work for something. Whereas if you are cleaning the backyard with the father because you want to spend time with the Father, because you love the21:16 Father, it's very different. That work is no longer an earning for something, but it's an effort to draw close to Him, to become more and more like Him. That's exactly what Paul is saying here.21:29 Paul says, I run. I press on, but while you are running the race, just like Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 said, you have to lay aside every sin, you have to recognize21:40 sanctification process, you have to forget those things that are behind and then you run ahead for certain things, and Paul includes that here in verse 13. He says, beloved, I do 1 thing. What is the 1 thing he21:52 does? Forgetting those things that are behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Look at that language, forgetting those things that are behind. What is behind Paul? Do you know Paul22:03 was a persecutor of the church? He was a murderer. He was a persecutor. There are so many things that could condemn him, but yet Paul says, I forget those things that are behind. Why?22:16 Because if I keep looking back, I will feel condemned for my failures. I don't want to have condemnation. It's Paul who says I have no condemnation in Christ. So now I forget actively, I22:27 let go of the past so that I can move forward. See sometimes, it is not just the past failures because past past failures produce guilt and condemnation and shame. We have to let it22:39 go and come under the blood of Jesus and be righteous because of his work. Hallelujah. But at the same time, there are past successes as well that can trip us, that can bring us to22:51 complacency. Past failures bring condemnation, past successes brings comfort and complacency. Look at this, Paul could have said, you know I have been a Christian for 30 years now. I've run23:02 this race, I've kept my faith, I've written so many books, I've church planted all over Asia, you know what guys, it's time for me to just go chillax23:15 somewhere in the beach and have a retired life. No, no, no. Paul says, No, I forget those things that are behind. I work out today. Why?23:27 Because I strain ahead. I love that language, strain forward. Straining forward is like every muscle, every nerve, every ligament is ready for the race to run because I'm in a marathon and that's exactly23:39 what he's saying, to lie to what lies ahead. Paul goes on to say, This is the upward call of God. Hallelujah. I want you to catch this church because this is important for you and I to23:51 recognize, the humble awareness that we are not there. We haven't arrived, and we need to have a godly ambition that drives us every single day.24:03 To have that mentality, I haven't arrived, I'm still learning, it will keep you humble, isn't it? You know the story was told of the founder of Judo. When he was being24:15 buried, they actually buried him with a white belt, not his celebrated black belt. Why? To showcase to the world that you are always a learner. There is always24:26 new things to learn. That's why if your cup is so full, if your heart is so full, you think that you already have arrived. Can I humbly say this? You will be walking around with a conceit and that will cause24:38 you to be complacent. Listen to me carefully. You and I, we need to come before God and have that humility of heart to say a humble awareness. I've not arrived. I haven't arrived. I'm not perfect. But at the same time, I24:50 press on with a godly ambition. I want to make Christ my own. I want to get that place of Christ likeness. Hallelujah. Praise God. And you and I, we need to forget those things that are25:02 behind and strain forward to those things that are ahead. Can I humbly say this? Develop this humility of heart. Have this humility of heart because that is the whole thing about this25:14 whole, book of Philippians. It is to have a humble heart. Why? Because when you have the humility of Christ and the humble heart, you will be humble in your relationships. You will25:25 preserve the unity in the family. You will preserve the unity in the community when you have a humble heart because you will not be smug, you will not be critical of others, you won't be judgmental towards others, you25:37 will show grace to them. That's why the application for this is beware of complacency. Press on towards spiritual maturity. Praise25:48 God. Story was told of Sir Arthur Doyle. He is the man who created the character Sherlock Holmes. He is a practical joker. So26:00 1 day he sent a telegram to 12 of his friends. All have been discovered, flee at once. At the end of that night, all his 1226:11 friends fled the country because we all have something in our closet that we want others don't want others to know. So be humble. God has rescued us,26:23 delivered us, but we need to have that humble attitude. That's the first thing he says. Don't be complacent, but press on. Secondly, don't steer into compromise. Hold26:34 true, Paul says. I want you to pay attention to this because compromise begins with dilution of truth. There are 4 things that I've already26:46 shared with you about discipleship, the need for discipleship in this hour. Why do we as a disciple making church focus so much on intentional discipleship? It is because the need of26:58 the hour is this. There is a dilution of truth that is taking place all over the world. As a result of the dilution of the truth, second thing happens which is the declension of the soul. The soul gets27:10 so numbed to live life anyhow. I want you to think about this. A man went to a fortune teller and he asked him, how does my future look?27:22 He says, oh, before you hit 30, you'll be bankrupt, you'll be divorced, you will be miserable, you will you will feel like committing suicide, you are completely a wreck.27:33 Wow. But after 30 what happens? Oh, you get used to it. That means that is your life. The declension of the soul is that our soul gets so numb that27:45 we don't feel anything, don't know, conscience doesn't really hear God anymore. We're not sensitive to the promptings of the spirit anymore. The declension of the soul because there's a dilution of the truth, we don't27:57 love the truth as much. Therefore as a result, we see it in 2 things, the disintegration of families and the disengagement of next generation. We haven't discipled the next generation properly. We haven't28:09 raised them to run the race for themselves and the disintegration of families. Family is at war in this country, in this season, all over the world. Listen to me carefully church.28:21 Paul writes and he says, don't compromise. That means you hold on to the truth. How can you hold on to the truth? You can only hold on to the truth because28:33 you and I as church, we are the custodians of the truth. You can only note hold on to the truth if you know the truth. But Christianity is not just about having the truth. Christianity is about walking28:45 in the truth. That's why in this passage of scripture between verses 16 to verse 19, Paul talks about walking. Twice he mentions walk, and there are 2 groups of people28:57 that he compares and contrasts. I want you to pay attention to this. Verse 16, he says, only let us hold true to what we have attained. Verse 17, brothers join in imitating me and keep your eyes on29:09 those who walk according to the example you have in us. The first kind of walk is the walk of the example of a Christian, example of a disciple. And Paul says, join me in imitating me29:21 and you have the example according to the example you have in us. Keep your eyes on these people. In other words, observe their life. Be intently looking at them and model after them. So29:33 here firstly, he talks about the walk. It's not just about having the truth, it's about walking in the truth. Then he goes on to warn in verse 18, he says, for many of whom I have often told you, in other words,29:44 Paul has already warned about these people. Even in chapter 3 he warned about these people in verse 2, look out for the dogs he says, beware of the dogs, the evildoers, the mutilators of the flesh and29:56 here he says, have often told you and now tell you even with tears. Paul is thinking of a certain group of people and suddenly instead of joy, you know this whole letter is about30:08 joy, instead of his heart being filled with joy, his heart is now filled with sorrow and eyes are rolling down with tears and now he says, with tears, I am telling you this, they walk as30:20 the enemies of the cross of Christ. So in verse 17, he talked about the walk of a disciple, an example of a disciple.30:32 Here, he talks about the walk of the enemy of the cross. How sad is that? And he compares these 2 and then he goes on to say in verse 19, who are the enemies of the cross? Their end is30:43 destruction. Their God is their belly. They glory in their shame with mind set on earthly things. I want you to capture that last phrase. Their mind is set on30:55 earthly things. In other words, these people who walk as the enemies of the cross, their mind is on earthly things. Where does compromise begin?31:07 Compromise begins when you dilute the truth and dilution of the truth happens when you start looking at the wrong place, having the wrong models. That's why Paul31:19 goes on to talk about this having the right models in your life. Who are you imitating? Who are you following? Who are you listening to? Who are you comparing your life with? Who are you consulting31:31 for your decisions? Who are you bringing on board to help you? Young people, can I humbly say this? The Kardashians are not your example in life. Not an NBA31:42 star. Not a pop star like Justin Bieber. I want you to listen to me carefully. Who are you modeling your life after? Because those people, their life. The Bible31:54 says here in verse 19, it may look glamorous here. It may look glorious here, but he says their glory is in their shame. They should be ashamed of the life32:06 they live, but yet they live as and they parade it as though it is glorious. Listen to me carefully. You and I, we need to know who are we modeling after. That's why Paul32:18 writes in verse 17 categorically, join with me in imitating me. Paul 6 times in his epistle says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. In other words, you don't want to follow Christ because you don't know how to32:30 learn from him, learn from the people around you. Paul is talking to the Philippian church and he says in chapter 2, I have given you 2 examples, Timothy and Epaphroditus. In every local church, there are32:41 examples that we can follow but at the same time I know in every local church, are people who are compromised. There are people who are living for themselves, living for this earthly realm, living with earthly32:52 indulgences. Listen, it's who you model after that matters and Paul says here very clearly, the end is their destruction. In other words, right now, everything is going well, but the end, the33:04 destiny is destruction. In other words, they will be ruined in the eternal kingdom. They are not going to be with God. Listen, their God is their belly. It could mean 2 things. 1, in the context33:16 of chapter 3, God is their stomach means he's talking about people who are keeping the law, the circumcision and keeping the dietary laws and saying because I keep the33:28 dietary laws, I'll be fine. Maybe they are vegan. Maybe they are vegetarian. Maybe these are the people who trust and say, we eat only these things. We don't eat those things. We eat There are there are33:40 denominations who don't eat certain things. Maybe you trust in your own effort and that's what he's talking about or it could be talking about a general thing which is their goddess their belly, meaning belly meaning33:51 appetites, sensual desires, earthly, fleshly, carnal appetites. Listen to me carefully. They are moved by their senses, what they see, what they feel, what they touch,34:03 what they taste. Their life is about where you dine, with whom you dine, and what you dine, what you ate, what you dined. It's all about34:15 that. Their Instagram is filled with what they ate, with who they ate, and what they were wearing. That's the live that's the living the good life, isn't it?34:27 It's not just eating, but where you eat. It is not just about what you ate, it's about where you ate, with whom you ate, and what you are wearing when you ate. That34:39 is the world. You and I have lived with different priorities. Listen to me carefully. Don't be caught up in the fleshly indulgences. That is what he is saying because they walk as enemies of the cross. Why34:51 do Paul says they are the enemies of the cross? Listen to me, because they appear to be friends of the cross, but they are not friends, they are enemies. Don't be fooled. That's why you need to know who you are modeling35:02 after. You need to know who is it that you are imitating your life after. Who is it that is speaking into your life that matters. Why? Because who you listen to will either lead you into35:14 a compromised life or a crucified consecrated life. That is what Paul is saying. Paul goes on to say, they glory in their shame with mindsets on earthly things.35:27 Their mindset is on earthly things. Can I humbly say this? That word mindset is a beautiful word. It is a word that appears 10 times in this whole35:39 episode. In fact, in verse 15, Paul writes in this context, you can't just walk aright unless you think aright. Look at this, you must walk aright. To35:51 walk aright, you must think aright. How do you think aright? You need to embrace the right mindset, not just envision the right models, but you also have to have the right mindset. Verse 15, he talks about this. He says,36:02 Let those who are mature think this way. Circle that word think this way because that is exactly what he is saying. Those that are mature think this way and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal36:13 that also to you. What is the mature thinking? You know those who want to be spiritually mature, they are growing in their sanctification, they want to be Christ like. Paul says they think this way. What do they think?36:25 They think like this. They think like Paul. For me to live is Christ. I belong to a heavenly kingdom. I want to The heavenly kingdom is a kingdom where everything is upside down,36:37 inside out. In other words, it is a kingdom where you humble yourself. You walk in humility before God. Hallelujah. And because you are humble, your humility, you model after Christ36:50 and you model after the examples of Christ in others. And Paul says, this is the way the mature think. Let the mature think this way. Can I look at this whole37:02 text together with you? Verse 15 to verse 19, can I give you 2 things to write down? He is talking about earthly thinking, eschatological thinking. He is talking about earthly walk, eschatological walk.37:14 In other words, you live an earthly life and an eschatological life. You have a earthly thinking, eschatological thinking. You have a earthly mindset. You have an eschatological mindset. What do I mean by37:26 that? It means this, that you are not moved just by your senses, but you are moved by a higher dimension of life with Christ and his eternal kingdom. Eschatological means the37:38 end times, the life after and you are thinking about the life after and you are saying, yes, I want to attain the resurrection from the dead. Therefore, I live differently. I think differently. I don't allow myself to37:49 think like the world. They glory in their shame. They guard us their belly. They end us their destruction. They walk as enemies of the cross. I don't want to be like that, but I think this way. And Paul goes38:01 on to say, if you think any other way, God will reveal that also to you. In other words, God will somehow bring you to this way of thinking before your life is over. I want you to listen to me38:13 carefully. This word mindset is such a beautiful word. Paul writes 10 times in this short episode and this is possibly the only episode where38:25 Paul deals with this 1 word mindset over and over again. The word in the Greek is phroneo and phroneo in the English is always translated38:37 differently, therefore you don't see it 10 times being used in this book, but let me give you some of the places where it is used so you have an understanding, a comprehension of what this word means.38:49 Look at Philippians chapter 1 and verse 7. Philippians 1 and verse 7, he says, For it is right for me to feel this way. Feel, that's the word, to39:01 think like this. See for Paul, thinking includes feeling. Catch that. I will come and share more in that. It is right for me to feel this way. In other words, thinking and39:13 feeling go together. Then he says in chapter 2 and verse 2, look at chapter 2 and verse 2, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of 1Show more
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Paul Jeyachandran
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