Matthew 6:7-8, Romans 5:6-8, John 16:13, Ephesians 2:10, Philippians 4:13, 19

So you’ve been praying to God. You’ve talked to him about what’s on your mind, what’s on your heart. You ask him. You ask him again. You pray in the morning. You pray in the middle of the day. You pray in the evening. But you’re still just so stressed. You’re still so worried and you’re still just so anxious.

I’ve been there. And it can happen partly because you’ve prayed and nothing has changed. Or maybe you don’t see how it’s all going to work out, but the sense of still being so stressed and anxious. Actually, there are roots to this that have to do with the way we now naturally relate to God as sinful people in a sinful, broken world.

When you go back to the beginning, to the scene in the garden when you have Adam and Eve and they have the opportunity to trust God to be their source of life, what’s at the core of what breaks everything is this thought that maybe we can’t trust God. Maybe he isn’t actually going to do the good thing for us. Maybe we need to do it our own way. And so, as people born sinful in a broken world, we have this natural sense that maybe God isn’t going to do the good thing. Maybe we can’t trust him. We have to try to do it our own way, which means we got to figure out how this is all going to play out. If we can’t figure it out, then maybe it’s not going to turn out good.

But Jesus says this in Matthew six, verses 7 to 8.

“And when you pray, do not babble like the heathen, since they think that they will be heard because of their many words. However do not be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8)

So God already knows what you need. And in the sense then, as Jesus brings it up, is that he knows what you need and as a good father, he’s going to provide. And he knows this, and he has this provision in mind before you even ask him, before you even say that prayer. So what does God know that you need? What is God looking to provide? And where can we find this out?

Actually, if you look throughout the scriptures, God tells us again and again what we need and what he has done and will do to provide. For instance, look at Romans chapter five, verses 6 to 8.

For at the appointed time, while we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. It is rare indeed that someone will die for a righteous person. Perhaps someone might actually go so far as to die for a person who has been good to him. But God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

See, before you and I were born, God knew that we would need a Savior. And even when we were his enemies, born into this world, naturally not believing him, walking with him, the reality is, long before we were born, Christ, God himself, became human. The Son of God became human, was born. The man Jesus lived the life you and I were meant to live. Lay down that life and died for your sins and mine to take that justice. He rose again to set us right with God, to give us life forever with God. God knows that that’s what we need. And he provided.

What else has God known that we need? How else has God provided? In John 16:13 Jesus said,

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak. He will also declare to you what is to come. (John 16:13)

He speaks these words to his disciples, but it lets us know that God would provide the Spirit to not only give us faith, but to teach us and help us grow. He knows that we need the Spirit today, and he has promised that Spirit. Ephesians chapter two in verse ten, he says,

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

He knew that we would need things to do. A calling, a purpose, a significance. He had plans for how he would use us in this world, and he has provided those works, those things for us to do. Or think about Philippians 4:13. This is a verse that often gets quoted kind of in the wrong way. This is the verse that says,

I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

And this usually gets used by people or often I should say to say, well, I can do anything I set my mind to. That’s not really what it’s about. This verse is in the context of how do I be content? God knows what you and I need to be content, to have enough. And later in that same chapter of Philippians, he says,

And my God will fully supply your every need, according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

Again and again we see Scripture tell us that God knows what we need, and God continually provides.

And so today, bring your needs before him. Ask him for these different things, but don’t stop there. Think about what has God already said he knows that you need. How has God already promised to provide? It may not change things right this moment. You may not see the way he’s going to provide. But how might things change if you shift from just your asking for things to thinking about how has God already answered?

Philippians 2:3-8

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In the United States, we have a kind of specific idea about what constitutes a hero. Who might we look to for as like a great example of an American hero, somebody like Abraham Lincoln, right? Abraham Lincoln starts at the bottom. He’s born in a log cabin. But through sheer grit and determination, he becomes president of the United States. And, of course, then the union collapses around him. He fights his way through the Civil war, comes out on the other side. The slaves are freed. The Union is preserved. That is the story of an American hero. Somebody who starts at the bottom and crawls their way up to the top.

It’s inspiring. We like that sort of story. What is a Christian hero, though? The Christian hero kind of goes the opposite direction. Let’s take a look at these verses in Philippians.

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 interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 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. (Philippians 2:3-8)

These verses are describing Jesus in his state of humiliation. That is, a man who started at the top, right? He started off not even a man. The second person of the Trinity, God himself. And he becomes confined in a human being’s womb and is born of a human being. Even just the process of being born is suffering. He spends his whole life crawling down, becoming a servant, even to the people who are supposed to be serving him. He started on top and through sheer grit, determination and love for us, spent his whole life crawling downward.

We imitate Jesus Christ in His state of humiliation. It’s a challenging teaching of Scripture and we try to insulate ourselves from it. In fact, I hear Christians try to find ways to get out of this particular kind of obedience. You’ll hear things like, won’t people take advantage of me if I do this?

Yep. Yes. People are definitely going to take advantage of you.

Won’t that be really, really hard? Won’t that be painful? Yes, yes, that will be hard. That will be painful.

Well, what about me? When do I take care of myself? Who’s supposed to take care of me? Nope. That’s, that’s not your concern. God gave you the concern of looking after other people. He’ll send other people to look out for you. Your job is to think about other people as better than yourself. Put other people first.

This particular teaching of Scripture shatters any illusions of self-righteousness that we might have. This is not the way that we live. As soon as we start thinking about the life that we’re supposed to be living, it leads us really quickly into despair. And it leaves us with very few recourses except to turn to Jesus. This is the beauty of Theology of the Cross. Me carrying my cross directs me to Jesus on His cross. The devil might be able to torment me and say to me, you don’t deserve heaven. You have failed completely in this regard, and the only thing I have to say to the devil is “you’re right.”

You are right. I have not done what I needed to do. I’m not doing what I need to do now. And no matter how hard I try, I can’t even begin to approach what’s necessary of me for heaven. And yet, clinging to and leaning on my Savior, bracing myself against his cross, I have the assurances of his heaven. It’s the antidote to my self-righteousness to look at and compare what my righteousness is able to achieve, which is literally nothing against what Jesus’ righteousness has accomplished for me. This is how we are ultimately the beneficiaries of the true Christian hero, that he carried our self-righteousness and replaced it with his actual righteousness, that he carried our despair at everything that we deserved and paid the penalty for it, giving us instead the reward that he earned.

Philippians 4:4

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If you were to describe your walk of faith, would it be a walk of joy or would it be something else? And if you’re not sure if it would be a walk of joy, why?

What makes it hard to be joyful? To be happy as a Christian? Is it the challenges we face in this world? We have, you know, our bodies are broken. We live in a sinful, broken world. Is it the challenges we face to living out our faith? Is it the consistent, plaguing guilt of knowing that we sin against God day after day?

What is it? It’s important for us to think about whether or not we’re living this joyful life because scripture again and again, God in His Word, would have us be joyful.

In, Philippians chapter four. Here in Philippians, God, through Paul says,

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)

And this is like a jumping for joy, joy. This is what God wants for us. And if God wants us to be filled with joy, we should think about what’s keeping us from that. Maybe sometimes when we see the challenges in this world, maybe sometimes that’s all we see and we don’t see beyond it. Maybe it’s because when the law pricks our conscience and helps us see our sin, and that’s a good thing, maybe we just stop there and don’t go to the next step of the gospel.

It could be a variety of things, but whenever we find ourselves lacking that joy, we need to come again to the cross, lay our sins before Jesus, and hear again the good news. Yes, you and I have sinned, and we do struggle with sin every day. But Jesus took that away. When you’re baptized into Christ, his life now covers you. When God sees you, he sees you through Jesus. And Jesus is God. God sees you through himself. He doesn’t see a speck of guilt, a speck of shame. Who you are now is someone redeemed in Christ. That’s your identity, that’s your eternity. And you may struggle with sin now, but there will be a day when you are free from it. And if that’s how you’re going to live someday, that’s also who you get to know you are today. Yes, you have challenges in this life, but they don’t win. You win in Jesus. Yes, there are things coming against you, but you have a strength that is stronger than yourself because you have God being for you.

There are so many challenges in this world, yes. Things that make it difficult to be a Christian and just to be a human. But we have a God and a gospel that overcame. We have a good news that is about overcoming death to bring life. We have a Savior in Jesus who overcomes the world. He promised that.

So let’s go again to the gospel. Let’s look again at Jesus and we’ll find we have every reason to rejoice.

Proverbs 16:18, James 4:6, Philippians 2:8

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The Bible talks a lot about pride. Proverbs 16 says this

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit precedes a fall. (James 4:6)

James four tells us that

“God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” (Proverbs 16:18)

That’s some strong language from God that speaks against the sin of pride. But I have to be honest, if I’m watching my kids and I see them do something kind for someone else when they don’t think anybody is watching, or if they do something amazing. I’m proud of them. And I’m sure you felt this too, that if you’ve worked a long time on a big project and it comes out well, you’re proud of the work that you do.

So why do we use this positive word to talk about something that God speaks against? Is all pride sinful? Here’s the distinction. So even in the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam work. Work is a gift from God. Adam was to care for the garden. He was to name the animals that God had created. And so that sense of accomplishment, that good feeling that we have when a job is well done, that’s not sinful pride. That’s not what God is speaking against here. It’s gratitude. We’re saying, thank you, Lord, for enabling me to do what you’ve called me to do. Thank you, Lord, for giving me this job to complete.

Instead sinful pride is the opposite. It’s taking for ourselves what belongs to God. It’s taking credit for what he has given to us. And saying this instead belongs to me. Pride is dangerous because it takes the glory that belongs to God alone, and it keeps it for ourselves. At its core, pride is self worship. It’s setting ourselves up at the center of the story instead of God. And here’s the thing God loves us too much to let us stay there.

Because if we think that we are good enough for him, if we think that we can prove ourselves to him, we’ll never understand our real need for him. It’s only when we let the law work and remove any sense of self-righteousness from us, that we can truly understand what he has done for us, that we can truly understand the love that he has shown to us. And nowhere is that love more clearly shown than in His Son and our Savior, Jesus.

Now we look at Jesus and there is no pride there. There is no need for self-promotion. There is no need to prove himself. Philippians two says this

He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.(Philippians 2:8)

Jesus came not to take the glory, but to serve. He came in complete humility to dress himself in human flesh, to live for us, and then to go to the cross to die for us. And it’s on that cross where every single one of our sins was paid for, even the sin of pride. So when you feel that sin of pride creeping in, or when you have that question in your mind, is this gratefulness to God over a job well done? Is this a sense of accomplishment or is this sinful? Ask yourself this: am I pointing others to me? Or am I pointing others to my God? Am I giving the glory and gratitude to him, or am I taking it for myself? Am I trying to prove to God that I’m good enough? Or am I resting in the fact that Jesus is enough for me? Because that’s the good news. He is.

Because of Christ all of our sins are forgiven because of him we can live in total, complete gratitude. And the more clearly we see the love and the forgiveness that Christ has won for us, the more we can live not in self glory, but in gratitude and gratefulness for what he has done for us. The Lord’s blessings to you.

John 8:31-32, Philippians 4:4-9

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What’s the enemy’s strategy? And how, how do we fight back? There is a real enemy in this world working against us. A spiritual enemy that is trying to steer us away from God and away from the good news of Jesus and the gospel and the truth of what God’s Word tells us. How do we fight back?

Recently, I was listening to a podcast that was talking about some people who were facing some very real and clear spiritual oppression and attacks, and when they talked about what really helped those people, I was surprised at how simple it seemed. It seemed way too simple. Here’s what they talked about. They said the people needed to be reminded of what’s true. They needed the truth. The truth is what helped. They had been believing many lies. And the enemy, that’s what he uses is lies. That’s what he’s been doing from the beginning.

If you go back to the garden when you have Adam and Eve there in the garden, and God had told him to eat from all the trees and the garden except for one. And the garden was full of all these trees that were good for food and pleasing to the eye. They could eat these and be fruitful, and multiply and embrace life. The enemy came in and said, oh, did God tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden? And started to get them to question what God said. And God had told them that if you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, then you’ll die. The enemy said, oh, you’re not going to die. That’s not what God has in mind. Actually, if you eat that, you’ll be like God, knowing good and evil. He put lies in their mind, and that’s what he’s been doing ever since.

He works against us with lies. That’s why it makes so much sense. In John chapter eight, when Jesus said,

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples. You will also know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

See, when the Holy Spirit works in our hearts and convicts us of the reality that we have turned away from God, that our sins of separated us from him, that we have been on a path of death and destruction. When the Holy Spirit convicts us of that truth. He’s opening our eyes to the reality, to the truth of how God created us, of how we’ve gone wrong and what we now need. And when the Holy Spirit works in our hearts, and he opens our minds to believe that Jesus has died for our sins and has risen again, the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes, our minds to the truth. The truth that we have a God who loves us, the God who has redeemed us, a God who has conquered death and given us life. The truth sets us free.

And so then how do we battle against the enemy today? It’s by going back to the truth. If you feel today like there’s something fighting against you, something battling against you, stop and ask yourself, is there something in me, if I feel twisted, is there something that’s actually twisted in what I’m thinking and what I’m believing? In Philippians chapter four, in that chapter there are these powerful words that Paul shares. He says,

Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7)

So he talks about prayer and he talks about peace. But then notice what he talks about next. He says,

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if anything is excellent, and if anything is praiseworthy, think about these things. The things that you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: Keep doing these things. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)

So think about what’s good. Think about what’s true. If I’m in a battle today, what lies is the enemy throwing at me? What truths does God speak to what I’m battling today? Think about what’s true. His love. Jesus’ death. Jesus’ resurrection. What that all means. Think about these things because the truth is what sets you free.

Philippians 1:21-22,24-25 2:5-8

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There’s this tension that we live in as Christians where we know that our future with Christ, that heaven, that the resurrection is going to be better and we look forward to that day. But then the tension arises with how do we then see today? Because doesn’t God want us to embrace today? Well, yeah. But then what about how we need to be focused on eternity? How do we grapple with the two of those things? How do we understand that?

Well, the apostle Paul actually talks about this in the book of Philippians. In the first chapter of Philippians, he talks about this, the struggle, because life is really challenging for him at the time. And he can really see. And it’s really clear to him how being with Jesus is going to be better. But then he also talks about what’s in front of him here with this life. And he says in verse 21 of chapter one of Philippians,

Yes, for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)

I think for me from that statement, the easier part to understand is to die is gain, Because with that statement, we have this assurance that because Jesus died for our sins and rose again, we’re right with God and we have the hope of being with Jesus where there’s no more sin, no more pain, no more suffering, no more death. We can see how that’s game. That’s better. But what does it mean to say that to live is Christ? What is that about? Well, if you go ahead to chapter two of Philippians, there’s something there that’s really helpful. Paul says,

Indeed, let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Though he was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant. When he was born in human likeness, and his appearance was like that of any other man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8)

What does that all mean? Well, the Son of God could have stayed in the comforts of heaven, but he and his Father had a plan to rescue us. And so God the Son took on human flesh and lived in this world, and laid down his life because he had a job to do. Because in obedience to His father and love for us, he came to live and to die and to rise again for us. He came for us. So instead of holding on to the comforts of heaven, he embraced the difficulties of this world because he had a special job to do. That’s what it means to live as Christ. Heaven will be better. Paradise with Jesus will be better. But God has us here because he has a job for us to do.

If you go back to chapter one, Paul, after saying, for me to live as Christ and to die is gain, he goes on to say,

But if I am to go on living in the flesh, that will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet which should I prefer? I do not know. But, it is more necessary for your sake that I remain in the flesh. And since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and will continue with all of you, for your progress and joy in the faith. (Philippians 1:22,24-25)

Paul recognized that God had some work for him to do, and I want you to hear this clearly today, especially to if you’ve ever struggled with thoughts of maybe my life should just come to an end. Or if you ever know anyone who wrestles with those sort of thoughts. That right now God has said, okay, if you’re going to ask the question, what’s better for me to be here right now in this place or to be in heaven? You know what God’s answer is in this moment? It’s better for you to be here. Otherwise you would already be in heaven. That means you must have something pretty important to do. Pretty significant.

Now, we often we forget that and we get focused on ourselves. But whenever that happens, whenever we realize that we have been focused on ourselves, whenever we realize our sin and how we have not been who God has called us to be, how we have turned away from God. Whenever the Holy Spirit convicts us of that, we can turn back to the cross, turn back to the one who came for us. Jesus came for you, died for you, rose again for you, so that heaven, yes, will be gained. It will be gained And now, today, in the meantime, to live is Christ. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Genesis 1-3, Philippians 3:20-21, Acts 17:31, Romans 8:19, Revelation 21:1-3

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Something’s off about the world today. Whether you’re a Christian or not, you probably agree with that. At least most people I talk to do. But what I hear from people about what to do about it varies. Some people are really passionate about how we need to figure out a way to kind of fix the world, or other people have kind of just given up on it. But thankfully the good news of Jesus gives us a better solution. It helps us understand what’s wrong with the world, but then also it helps us see, it points us to the solution for the world.

First of all, think about what’s wrong with the world. If you go back to Genesis 1 to 3, it helps lay out for us what’s really going on in the world today. It lays out for us the fact that God created this world to be this place where he and humanity would live together and partner together. He created humanity to be in his image and his likeness. Not that we would physically look like him, but that we could live in a way that looked like him.

It’s this really amazing thing, if you think about it. How does an invisible God visibly show what he looks like? Well, he creates people to live in a way that reflects who he is, to live in a way that reflects his character. Then he also gave us the opportunity to rule over the world in his likeness. So then to partner with him and ruling his world.

Well, people turn away from God. We now no longer live in a way that always looks like God or reflects God. And so since we, the rulers of his world, live in a way that doesn’t look like him, what happens? We have a world that is now broken. We have a world that doesn’t function right, because we don’t live in a way that looks like its creator. We don’t trust our creator. Instead, we try to do things our own way.

But now Jesus is the hope for humanity. We know that Jesus came into this world and he looked perfectly like God, partly because he is fully God, but also because he is the human who lived the way that we were meant to live. And then he went to the cross and died for our sins, to pay for those things we’ve done wrong, to take the justice on himself. And then he rose again to give us a new life. And our hope is ultimately of resurrection, where we can have restored to us the life we were meant to have in the beginning.

Think about Philippians 3:21. It says,

Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to even subject all things to himself. (Philippians 3:20-21)

So we’re looking forward to a resurrection or restoration of what was lost. But it’s not just about us as individuals. In Acts 17:31, it talks about how God has fixed a day where he will judge the world in righteousness. So all the injustice we see in the world today, God will set it all right. And when Jesus returns, it also means liberation for the whole creation itself. In Romans 8:19, it talks about how the creation is longing for the sons of God to be revealed. That it has been subjected to frustration and to all the issues we see in the world today, so that at some point it can be liberated from it.

There will be a day that Jesus returns. This broken world as we know it comes to an end. And there is, as Revelation 21:1-3 describes, the new heavens and the new earth, there will be the new creation. Where finally everything will be set right. There is something wrong with the world today, but Jesus is the one who sets it all right.

Philippians 1:21

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Deliver us from evil. I always find it interesting that that word we use “deliver” the same word for salvation is the same word we use for baby being born into the world. What are we praying for when we pray to God deliver us from evil? Well, we’re asking God to rescue us from every evil attack and ultimately to bring us safely into His heavenly kingdom. And there’s three different ways God can answer that prayer to deliver us from evil.

The first thing that we usually have in mind when we say deliver us from evil is we are praying for God to essentially keep us in this dark world. Part of living in this dark world is that our life is afflicted with pain, sickness, disease, temptation. And so the Christian will often pray to God, deliver me from evil, take this evil out of my life. And though God, certainly at times, according to his good and gracious will, will grant that prayer, we also have to understand as Christians how God uses that pain and trouble in our life. That God uses these things to create a yearning in our hearts, to be borne out of this world, to leave this world behind and be brought into heaven’s glory. And so for as often as we pray for God to deliver us from those evils. We can sometimes be praying in a way that conflicts with God’s will.

The second way we might have that prayer answered is when God takes the Christian out of this world and grants them a blessed death. The dying process can often be a long, painful process or it can be short, quick, sudden and without warning. But for the Christian, all death is a blessed death.

I know sometimes people feel conflicted, even guilty, about either longing for their own departure out of this world or even praying for God to end someone else’s suffering and bring them out of this world. But for the Christian, we never need to feel guilty about that. Paul says,

For me to live as Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)

And only the Christian, only the Christian can have that attitude about death because Jesus has died for us, because through faith in Christ, our sins are forgiven and we have eternal life. Only the Christian can look at death as a blessed rest from our labors.

The only difference for Christian is that we ultimately, we ultimately leave that decision of when into God’s hands. The final way God answers that prayer, deliver us from evil, is to suddenly return. That whenever we pray those words, we are praying for Jesus to come back from heaven, to end this world, to tear open the sky and to take his children and rapture us into heaven. On that day he’ll raise the dead, raise our bodies from the ground. That’s the day he ultimately will bring us out of this world of darkness, evil, and suffering and bring us to eternal life.

All these things we pray for when we pray, deliver us from evil. And as a Christian, you pray with confidence knowing that it is God’s holy gracious will to break and defeat every evil attack of the devil and ultimately bring you safely to his heavenly kingdom. Amen.

Galatians 3:27, Colossians 3:3, Philippians 1:21, Philippians 2:6-8

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So tell me about yourself. Who are you? What do you, what do you like? How would you describe yourself? Go ahead to even pause the video for a minute and just think. How would you respond to that? How would you describe yourself?

The way you describe yourself is important because it tells us a lot about how you define yourself, where you find your identity. Like maybe you the first thing you say is, well, I’m, you know, like for me, I might say, like, I’m a pastor. You might say you’re a, you’re a mother, you’re a father, you are a student. You know, you work here. You work at a bank. You work these other places. And we think about all these various things that we do or our relationships. And often we look for our identity there. And those things are good things. But there’s weaknesses to finding our identity in those places.

There’s weaknesses there for a couple of reasons. Part of the reason why there might be a weakness there is that those things in life can change. Relationships can change. What you do for a living can change. So then when it changes, then you can start to have an identity crisis. Well, who am I? That’s also problematic because where you find your identity actually drives very much of what you do. It drives your decisions. It becomes to be what you live for because if you find your identity somewhere and that becomes so important for you, it can become the driver for your life because you need to keep that identity. And something that starts to drive your life, can begin to do what really God was meant to do. It can begin to take over the place of God in your life.

There’s a better place to find your identity. To go find your identity we can go to God’s Word to see what God says about us. If you go to the book of Galatians, it talks about how we have been baptized into Christ. You, if you’ve been baptized, you’ve been baptized into Christ, which means you’ve been clothed with Christ. So when God sees you, He sees the perfect life of Christ. And Christ also then being the Son of God, Christ is God, God when He looks at you, He sees a spitting image of himself. Your primary identity when you look in the mirror should be that I am in Christ.

Maybe instead of thinking yourself as a Christian, maybe use this word. It sounds maybe a little bit weird, but say I’m, I’m a Christ-in. I’m somebody who is in Christ that defines you. I mean, if you look at Colossians chapter three, Paul says that your whole life is now hidden in Christ. That is who you are. So now what does that mean for how you live your life, though? Because all these other things, we think about where we get our identity have to do with living my life in my relationships, what I do. How does our identity now connect with the way we live our life?

Well, I want to take you to Philippians chapter one in verse 21. Paul says that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. I think the second part of that statement is easier to understand, and the first. To die is gain, as a Christian, that becomes pretty clear to us. So we understand, we know, that because Jesus died and rose again, we are set right with God. We know that promise that Jesus said that when you close your eyes to this world and open them, you will be with him in paradise. And we’re looking forward to resurrection. We know that. So to die is gain, that makes sense. But what does it mean to say to live is Christ?

Well, the second chapter of Philippians helps with that. When you look to the second chapter of Philippians, Paul talks about how Jesus did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped, but he humbled himself and took the form of a servant. That section, there’s a lot of big words. It can be a little bit confusing sometimes, just so kind of just to boil it down. What does it mean? It means that that the Son of God could have stayed in the comforts of heaven. But instead he humbled himself because his father had a job for him to do. He humble himself and became a servant to live that life you and I were meant to live, but don’t. To lay his life down and to die on the cross so that he could then rise again and give us new life.

When Jesus lived in this world, he was living as a humbled servant, carrying out his father’s plan for the good of those around him. As you think about living and Paul says to live is Christ, for you life is the same way. You are first and foremost a servant. Here because you have a job from your father. That job can change over time. Sometimes your primary thing will be to take care of little kids. Some day they grow up. You know, you might have a job here and then a job there. Those things can shift. But what doesn’t shift is that you are a Christ-in you are somebody who is in Christ. Your whole life is hidden in Christ. You are a servant carrying out your father’s work as you looking forward to that day of life with him. You are a Christ-in that’s who you are.

Philippians 2:6-8

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In Christian thought, there is something known as the Seven Deadly Sins. You’ve probably heard of a number of them before. Sins like wrath or gluttony or lust. But what’s said to be the most deadly of the seven deadly sins and sometimes even referred to as the father of all sin, is the sin of pride.

Now, I hadn’t considered the sin of pride very much until I got to college, and I read C.S. Lewis’ wonderful book Mere Christianity, breaks down the basics of Christian Doctrine. And in Mere Christianity he has an entire chapter devoted to what he labels the great sin, the sin of pride. But he says, if you want to know if the sin of pride affects you, consider how much it bothers you when you see it in somebody else. And that’s what really hit home to me like a thunderbolt. Because I thought, you know, I’m a pretty good Christian, but man, if someone thought they were better than me or someone talked down to me, or if they would snub me in some way, shape or form, the way that that just bothered me so much.

Through that reading, I came to the realization that that’s well, that’s my pride. That’s my pride that I can’t stand to see that. And so besides thinking about the way that pride had affected my relationships with other people, I also then thought and meditated on how pride had affected my relationship with God. Now, growing up in the church, knowing the Law of God as I reflected upon it, you know, how often did I know what God wanted me to do, and what was right and what was wrong, and what Scripture said, but instead of either doing the right thing, or when I did sin confessing my sin to God laying before him, how often would and I find myself trying to justify what I had done or twisting God’s word just a little bit? In order to make it so, well, I can be like God, I suppose in a small way. I can justify myself. I can define what’s right and what’s wrong.

But beyond just dwelling on the pride that resides in my heart, and maybe as you dwell on the pride that resides in your heart, what’s good for us to do as Christians is consider what is the exact opposite of pride. The antithesis of pride. And that’s Christ. Paul puts it so well in Philippians chapter two.

Christ, though he was by very nature God. So the greatest of all things. He didn’t consider equality with God as something to be grasped. But took on the form of a servant. He took on human nature. And what does he do? He humbled himself. Being humble, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. He traded pride for humility. And it wasn’t just to be an example for us. But Christ in his humility did it so he could save us. Because then in his humility, in his death, on the cross, all of your sin, all of my sin, even the sin of pride that was plaguing my heart. That sin is taken from you and from me, and it’s placed on him. So as far as the East is from the West, so far has that’s been removed from us. Our sin is gone because of the humility of Christ.

And then the amazing thing that we can do as Christians is we can go to God. We can lay our sins at his feet and know that they’re removed from us. And then we can pray to God our Father and say, Lord, create in me a new heart. Renewal a right spirit within me. God, make my heart, this prideful heart of mine, take it and make it just a little bit more like the heart of your Son.

And though we’re always a work in progress, we never get it perfectly right, to a certain extent, though, that does happen. Christ works within our life. And when you have a little bit more of the heart of Christ. When you see someone who’s maybe more gifted, more talented, greater than you are, instead of looking at them with envy and the pride that bothers our hearts, we can say, Well, God be praised. They have wonderful gifts. Good for them.

And then another opportunity that we have when we come across somebody who maybe is less fortunate or less gifted than us or has less resources than we do. Instead of looking down on them with disdain or disgust. We have just the slightest opportunity that we can show that same kind of serving love and humility that Christ showed for us. And what a blessing that is in our lives. Praise be to Christ who humbled himself to the point of death, to take our sin from us. Amen.

Galatians 3:26, Philippians 4:6

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Have you ever felt a bit foolish when you pray? Maybe thinking that your requests aren’t that big of a deal, you wonder if you should really be bothering God with them? I think part of the reason for this is maybe we ourselves don’t feel all that significant in the big scheme of things. We probably look at the world and we can think of the various Christians out there, many that have very important roles, such as a Christian leader in the church or maybe in government or even in business. We think about them, they’re so much more important than I am.

But God reminds us of this truth, in his word, in Galatians Chapter 3, he tells us.

In fact, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26)

He tells us that we’re God’s children. We’re his dearly love children through faith in Christ, every one of us! And God doesn’t play favorites. He wants to hear the requests of each of his children, no matter how important or how unimportant, we think that we are compared to the world.

Then there’s that other piece of it, too, right? Concerning our request. We can understand how God might be concerned if we brought those requests of a friend who has cancer to help heal them, or maybe those requests to God that there’d be peace and no war throughout the world, or that more people around the globe come to know Jesus as their Savior.

Those seem big life and death sort of requests that involve a lot of people. Does God really care when I pray, protect me on my ride home from work tonight? Does God really care? God, I hope that I like what we’re having for dinner tonight, or I hope I’m able to get my homework done and able to get to bed at a decent hour.

Well, God wants to hear those requests too. In Philippians 4, he says

Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)

In everything. He doesn’t limit it, he says only the big stuff, or only if it involves a lot of people are only if it’s life or death, no, in everything. Whatever the concern that you have, bring it to God. He wants to hear your requests and he wants to help. God even invites us, in his Word, to come to him as our dear father. Invites us to pray, Abba, father, and some translations even translate that as daddy. It’s a very personal way of addressing God. He invites us to come to him in that way, knowing we’re his dear children through faith. He wants to help, he wants to hear just as earthly father cares about his children, loves them, wants to help too.

With that in mind, let us not be afraid to pray to God or afraid that he doesn’t want to hear us. Instead bring every request to him. Let’s pray now.

Dear Lord, God, heavenly father, you invite us to pray at all times for all things. Help was to realize that we are important to you, no matter what our status is in this world. We are your children and you want to hear our prayers. Help us to bring them to you regularly and freely, knowing that you’ll help us for Jesus sake. We ask this all in his name. Amen.

John 3:16, Philippians 3:20

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One of my summers back in college was spent selling books door to door, and I started in a crazy way. We were in a new part of the country, and our first weekend was spent knocking on doors, not selling books, but asking the people if they could put up, or if they knew someone who could put up, four college students for the summer. Seemed crazy then, it seems crazy now, but it actually did work out. But we were looking for a home.

Do you ever long for a place to call home? Do you not have a place you feel like you can really call home? Or do you feel like you maybe don’t fit in? In the world or in your family, you’re black sheep? Or maybe you’re away from home and you’re a bit homesick, you long for that place where people know your name, where they know you. Know that you have a family and a home in Jesus.

He came into this world, for all people, no matter who they are, no matter what they’ve done. As we read in God’s Word,

For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son. (John 3:16)

And why did he come? So we might have a permanent home. We read in Philippians 3, verse 20.

But our citizenship is in heaven. We are eagerly waiting for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:20)

Jesus left his heavenly home and came to our world, to people who had turned their backs on him, and lived among us. And, he says even at one point in his ministry, that he didn’t have a place to lay his head. He was homeless, you could say. Why did he do that? So that we might have an eternal home. And he won that for us by living a perfect life for us, then giving it up on the cross, there’s a payment for our sins.

That we might be children of God heirs of eternal life in heaven. He gave up his life so that we would have an eternal one, and the receipt is in his Easter resurrection. We now have hope. We are part of a family, of God’s family, and we have an eternal home waiting for us in heaven, a perfect home, guaranteed by Jesus death and his resurrection.

And sometimes in this world, things aren’t quite right. And we feel homesick. But that’s a good thing. When we have those troubles, it’s reminders that our citizenship is not in this world. We were saved for and are citizens of a far greater home, in heaven. Praise God, who has won us this home. Amen.