Philippians 1:27-2:30

Is Your Life Worthy of the Gospel?

Dang, I hang my head in shame. It’s not. But I remember this. For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. Praise. All. Not some, not many, not others, not you. ALL. For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For God SO loved the world (all) that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, will not perish, but have everlasting life. Praise!

What a relief!

Also, questioning if you are worthy, is not for you to choose. Only Jesus is worthy remember? Revelation 5:8-14.

Salvation is not for us. It is for Jesus. For while we were yet sinners, remember that too? Christ died for us, but to satisfy Himself in His own purity. Only He was able to provide the atonement for our sins. The Gospel message is the greatest love story ever told. It’s sad, beautiful, perfect, tragic, true, crippling, honest and heart-wrenching. The best part is the promise of the Gospel. The promise of eternal life and love with Jesus.

How can we be worthy?

Who is worthy? The only One is Jesus. So the answer is “no,” we can never be worthy.

The Spirit craves holiness. The Holy Spirit allows us the attitude of Christ so we will never be worthy, but our oneness with Jesus through the Spirit and Trinity will constantly be nurturing and blessing us with our relationship with God the Father. We are allowed a glimpse of God through the oneness with the Trinity. He fills us with the fruits of the Spirit and that is the most satisfied we can feel in human form.

Fellowship in the Spirit is a command from God. We are better together. We are not meant to be alone. If we stand firm and together we can remain stronger, even when people oppose us. It is easier to stand firm when we are united. We must be united with Jesus first, and then be united with brothers and sisters in the Spirit.

The promise and comfort is that God is present and with us when we remain in Him. There is power in His name. The Enemy cannot win when Jesus is present. The enemy will be destroyed. Jesus promises time and time again that He is the overcomer. He had to die, to pardon us of our sin, but this was not where he would remain. He defeated death, rose again and destroyed the clutches of sin. He promises us that Righteousness will win in the end. We may suffer for a time, but the promise is Salvation, no matter the turns life takes us on. It is easier to struggle together as a church body, rather than to suffer all alone. That is why the Lord wants Christians to cling to one another. He wants us to pray together, to worship together, to nurture together. We are stronger, together. Isolation is not Godly. Let’s not do that.

Imitating Christ’s Humility

Virtues from Christ: encouragement, comfort, united, common sharing, tenderness, compassion, joy, like-minded, love, one-spirit, one-mind.

It is not Godly to do nothing, to have selfish ambition or vain conceit.

It’s super important for us to value others above ourselves. And that is a super healthy way to look at relationships with others. How would Jesus love that person? It’s a hard empathetic stance to take. Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Get this mind-numbing, reality-taking, awesome-God moment. God made Jesus, himself, nothing. He took the form of a servant, He made himself his own creation. He existed as a perfect spirit and became a humble human. He even allowed himself to be obedient to death, and the worst death too – crucifixion.

Because Jesus did this, God gave Jesus the Highest place. He gave Jesus a name above every name, and every knee will bow to Jesus, they will have no option. This is the part I love – it’s not just that every knee will bow in Heaven and on Earth, but also under the Earth too. Even evil will bow and be completely surrender to Jesus. Every tongue will acknowledge Jesus as Lord. Praise! All of this will glorify God the Father. I love this focus!

This part of Philippians was my own personal chastising. Do Everything WITHOUT Grumbling. I can’t tell you how many times I have told my children not to complain when I tell them to do something. If they grumble, I discipline them. When I discipline them I create a respectful fear in them. They respectfully fear me. This is good. If you don’t respectfully fear falling off a bridge, then you will not act in a careful way when close to the edge, falling should not be an option. You respect the height.

Fear and trembling? Yup. I know that God is a good Father. He is a good Father because He loves me and He wants the best for me. He sees when I do the wrong thing. He hates sin. He teaches me to do the right thing with discipline. If He didn’t, would He really love me? That goes for us today. I know for sure that we are in a time of Judgement.

How can your current Government – with our In God We Trust printed everywhere – openly pray to a God that doesn’t exist and we still have the One True God on our side? Didn’t he time and time again, turn his back on his people to show them that protection is a gift? It is not a requirement? We earn protection. We blaspheme the Lord when we live our lives assuming that we are void of consequence.

This life we have here in America, the newness of it all compared to societies that have been around for 6000 years, it’s normal that we are going to have growing pains, but come on. It’s inexcusable to make the mistakes we are making now. We need morals. We NEED right and wrong. We need punishment. If we have no fear of judgement or discipline, we will be subject to utter chaos.

What do you use to base your moral code on? The Bible. Every. Single. Time. The 10 Commandments. It’s simple. 10 things – don’t do them. Love Jesus. Yup. Read the Bible. Okay. Pray. All the time, and DON’T SIN.

There we have it. More walking with Jesus. More digging into the Word. Praise the Lord for study, for dedication for truth and the comfort that it all brings. That’s the gift. The comfort that spending time with our Creator gives. If you feel a tail-spin coming, just pick up your Bible. Let the weight of His Word penetrate your mind. You can pick it up. You can open it’s pages, and YOU TAKE IT FOR GRANTED. There are brothers and sisters out there that CAN’T. The act of simply OWNING a Bible is a death sentence. Think of that each time you walk past it without craving it’s words. Think of that each time you complain about something uncomfortable. Think of that when you start hating on your neighbor or doing something childish.

Grow up America. Put on your big boy pants and start acting mature. Start acting instead of expecting. Start cleaning up your own backyard. I pray that we realize how special freedom is before God takes it all away in chastising discipline to those who are taking it all for granted. In God We Trust.

I love you Jesus. Thank you so much for the Bible. Thank you so much for the lessons it provides. Thank you for Paul and his awesome testimony for so many people who lived life in the gutter. Who just thought in their own will that life was just okay. That their own rules and regulations were enough. Thank you for that day, that one pivotal day that you thrust me down on my knees and crushed all comfort and sucked the ego out of me. Thank you that in that moment, that you allowed me to turn to you. Thank you for choosing me before time even began, for being all knowing and all seeing and not within the constraints of time. I love that you are actually God. That you have no limits. I love remembering that about you. Thank you for this time of shock, and that I get to be here to witness this, to see the glory and honor and praise that my heart feels for you. Praise you Jesus for the blood applied right now. I can feel your presence so strongly right now Jesus, because you are holding me, you are with me and it is because I am broken, and I can’t do this. Not one single second, I can’t do this without you. Thank you for comfort, for joy and for peace in each moment, for replacing the world with eternity, for taking temporary and making death a thing of the past. You are truly awesome in every way. I love you Jesus, thank you for dying for me, and for reminding me that you are always with me. Thank you for giving me the Holy Spirit as my guide. Please replace me with more of Him and less of me. In Jesus Name, Amen.