Side by Side Resilience

Ben Miller

Side by Side for the Gospel • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Intro: It is so good to be with you this morning… thank you to Pastor Jon and your elders for the privilege of opening God’s word for you this morning...

I bring greetings from our church, Oak Hill Fellowship Church in Southern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania…

Yes, that is Lancaster… not LAN-CAS-ter… I too know what it is like to come from a place where everyone pronounces it wrong…

So from one obscure place to another… GREETINGS!

I want you to know that as partners in the Great Commission Collective, our church prays for you.

It’s been such a joy to get to know your Pastor and to track with your church… I think you were in your first year as a church when I met him…

And I think I was in my fourth year as a lead pastor at the time... our church right now is 13 years old...

and I’m now in my seventh year pastoring but I’ve been there since day 1 and understand the work that goes into planting a church.

But when I met Pastor Jon, I thought: who is this guy?!? Like… does he ever sleep??? He’s got vision coming out of his ears… he sees a vacant building and thinks “I can renovate that...”

...he leads you to start ministries left and right…

And I just admire that your church is working so hard at the mission of making disciples and multiplying churches… And you are seeing God do some amazing things…

And we are SO happy that we get to partner with you all through the Great Commission Collective…

That’s really the main reason I’m here… to get a fresh perspective on what ministry can look like in a small town… I think we have so much to learn from you guys...

But if I can pass anything on to YOU this morning from being a church plant for a little bit longer… I’d want it to be this: you need to stand firm together.

Somewhere in your journey with Vertical Gallipolis, you will reach a season where the challenges of living on mission together will make you not want to stay in it.

Maybe you’ve already encountered that season… maybe you are personally in it right now...

I found a video on YouTube that I think captures living on mission pretty well sometimes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tnl6m8vUGWk

Does living on mission ever feel like that to you?

He says, “This is the longest 15 minutes of my life!”

And we can go through seasons of life that feel like that hurricane.

We face busy schedules and competing priorities that pull us in a million different directions...

We face disagreements and frustrations with other people in the church...

We face rejection in taking the gospel to our neighbors…

We face personal physical limitations and health concerns...

And sometimes all of that comes at us at once with hurricane force…

And if we aren’t careful, it will knock us off our feet… it will distract us and sideline us from the mission to which God has called us as believers.

If we are going to follow Christ, it is really important that we understand how to stand firm.

Notice what the reporter in this video is doing… he is constantly checking his position to best resist the force of the wind and rain that is driving against him.

And in the church we need to constantly be checking our own footing to make sure we are standing firm no matter what comes against us.

We need Side by Side Resilience if we are going to stay on mission for Jesus… that’s the title of today’s sermon… “Side by Side Resilience.”

Here’s the big idea:

Big Idea: Stand firm, side by side in the Lord.

Your Bible’s are open to Philippians chapter 4...

Really this idea of standing firm side by side is the whole THEME of the book of Philippians…

This is really a letter, written by the Apostle Paul from prison in Rome… he’s writing TO the church in Philippi, which is located in Macedonia, just north of Greece.

He knew them well… he had helped to plant their church earlier in his ministry…

And they have been faithful gospel partners in his church planting mission since day 1…

But there were some threats to their gospel partnership…

Paul finds out through one of their members who came to visit him that they are being tempted from without and within to get their eyes off the gospel… off the mission...

And so he writes this letter to encourage this church to continue partnering together in the pursuit of knowing and proclaiming Jesus.

He gives us his purpose for writing in chapter 1:27 -

“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are STANDING FIRM in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,” (Philippians 1:27, ESV)

He is writing so that they would keep the gospel central in their lives… so that they would live it out and therefore, stand firm, side by side, in the Lord.

That’s the purpose of the letter.

Let’s see if we can see it in our particular text today: read with me in chapter 4:1-9

Did you see our big idea for the day? Stand firm, side by side, in the Lord.

Paul opens this new section of the letter with these words in verse 1:

“THEREFORE [which calls our attention to the previous section which was all about pursuing Jesus Christ together as our highest aspiration…]

THEREFORE, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.” (Philippians 4:1, ESV)

This verse ties together the rest of verses 2-8…

He says, “Stand firm, THUS.” In other words, what I am about to write to you is the WAY you are to stand firm.

When read out of context, verses 2-8 SEEM to be addressing random subjects.

But they are ALL part of standing firm in the Lord.

In the rest of verses 2-9, we see…

Four Ways We Must Stand Firm

1) Agree in the Lord's Calling (v. 2-3)

So imagine you are a part of the Philippian church… and your leaders have called you together because one of your church leaders, Epaphroditus, has just come back to town, and he’s carrying a letter from the APOSTLE PAUL!

So you enter the courtyard of Lydia’s house because that’s where your church regularly meets…

And you find a seat next to your good friend Euodia. As you catch up on your week, you can’t help but notice another woman across the room staring at the two of you.

Her name is Syntyche. Things have been… tense.. with her and Euodia lately… ever since the days Epaphroditus first left to visit Paul.

And it’s causing some tension with you as well… it’s not as bad with you... because you can sort of see things from her side.

Mostly you’ve just tried to keep your nose out of it because it seems like its’ none of your business…

But if you’re honest, it’s making things awkward in the whole church. It’s been a pretty big distraction.

Your mind is replaying the little bit you DO know about the situation when one of your elders tells everyone to find a seat and starts reading the letter.

It’s a pretty typical letter from Paul full of rich theology... until he gets to chapter 4:2...

And then your elder reads chapter 4 verse 2 (which of course you don’t have those chapters and verse numbers): “I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.”

There’s a pause that feels like an eternity.

Euodia shifts in her seat. You look across and Syntyche does the same. THIS. IS. AWKWARD.

You are unsure what to do…

Until the elder continues reading: Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.” (Philippians 4:2–3, ESV)

OK, Come back to the 21st century.

Explain: Now we don’t know much about this disagreement between these two ladies… but it’s obvious that the Philippian church knew… and it’s obvious that this disagreement needed to be dealt with at all costs.

I kind of like the fact that we don’t know what the disagreement was… it lets us wonder about just about any type of disagreement.

Just think about all the ways that we COULD disagree on the way to the goal of making disciples…

We could have theological disagreements… political disagreements… disagreements on the best ways to do ministry… differences in convictions about entertainment choices or schooling choices or whether or not we should get a vaccine...

And how does the world handle those types of differences these days? They say, “We disagree… fine, then I’m going to cancel you. We can’t have relationship. I must be right, you must be wrong, and that must be a deal-breaker.”

Evidently, that type of thing was happening in Philippi too..

This disagreement was causing enough disruption in the church’s side-by-side mission of the gospel that Paul needed to call it out in front of the whole church… which is RARE for Paul to do.

In the past, both of them had partnered with one another AND with Paul in a way that resulted in the mission going forward.

Apply: Too often, we allow SECONDARY disagreements to disrupt our PRIMARY calling.

The primary calling of the church is to make disciples.

Vertical Gallipolis says it this way: lost people saved, saved people matured, mature people multiplied.

But here’s the problem: we tend to elevate everything we are passionate about to the level of that calling.

Now I am not at all saying that these differences are not important or that we aren’t allowed to disagree or that we can’t have convictions about some things...

UNITY is NOT the same as UNIFORMITY.

But not every disagreement rises to the level of our calling.

Paul is saying that we must AGREE in our CALLING IN THE LORD and elevate THAT above every other disagreement.

Notice he says, “AGREE IN THE LORD.”

This word for “Agree” is the same word he used back in chapter 2 when he said, “be of the same mind...” which was the mindset of a servant that is the mind of Christ himself.

That’s the secret to resilience: agree IN THE LORD.

It’s not, “Agree about everything.”

It’s, “Agree about the main thing… and elevate that above every other disagreement.”

Expect and allow for disagreement on secondary matters so that the primary mission can go forward.

When the winds of disagreement try to blow you from a standing firm, side by side in the Lord… AGREE in the Lord’s calling.

This is harder than it sounds. In fact, it’s impossible in our flesh. We NEED THE LORD in order to AGREE in the Lord.

We need to see our lives as totally wrapped up in Christ…

Earlier in this letter, Paul said described his whole life philosophy like this, “to live is Christ.”

Listen: if you don’t know and treasure Jesus as your only source of life, you will not stand firm against the many temptations toward disunity that will come against you.

We need Jesus in order to “agree in the Lord’s calling”… and we need the CHURCH to point us back to that calling...

We need TRUE COMPANIONS to get us back to the solid footing of our primary calling in Jesus Christ… when our own opinions and preferences have become ultimate.

Do you have people in your life like that?

Apply: I wish I could be that for you this morning... but since I am an outsider like Paul, I asked Pastor Jon for some names I need to call out this morning to agree in the Lord.

So here it goes: I entreat… [Pause]

OK… he didn’t really do that… I don’t have any names…

But were any of you afraid that I was going to name you and another person? Did your mind rush to a disagreement that has kept you from standing firm, side by side, in the Lord with someone?

If Paul were writing this letter to Vertical Church, Gallipolis would he have to charge YOU to agree in the Lord?

Is there a secondary disagreement that you’ve allowed to fester and keep you from partnering with someone else in the work of the ministry?

If so, get it worked out. Humble yourself. Start the path to restoring relationship and calling THIS WEEK.

And if you need help, find a faithful companion… not one who is loyal to one “side” or the other… someone who is faithful to Jesus and his mission… find someone to help you.

Maybe you’re not the one in the disagreement… maybe when I said, that, your mind rushed to another disagreement that you know about, and YOU are the “faithful companion” that needs to HELP your fellow church members agree in the Lord.

Maybe you need to call two people together and get them to work it out because you are the one who is close to the situation.

If God has placed you near the situation, he’s likely calling YOU to be the minister of reconciliation.

No matter what, if something is hindering side by side partnership, we need to lay down secondary disagreements and find our agreement in the Lord’s calling.

If we don’t, our mutual joy in the Lord is at stake. Look at verse 4:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;” (Philippians 4:4–5, ESV)

As we Agree in the Lord’s calling, the second way we must stand firm is to...

2) Rejoice in the Lord’s Coming (v. 4-5)

Explain: Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord.” He said the same thing back in chapter 3 verse 1. Joy has been a consistent theme in the book.

Now maybe some people in Philippi were thinking at this point, “REJOICE ALWAYS?!?!?!!! Paul, you just acknowledged how things have been a little tense around here.

“You’ve acknowledged in this letter that we face persecution and false teaching… YOU YOURSELF are in PRISON… how can you say REJOICE ALWAYS?!?!!”

And Paul anticipates this and doubles down - “Again I will say, REJOICE!”

Believer: God WANTS YOU… COMMANDS YOU… to express JOY… ALWAYS!

Now that starts with actually HAVING JOY always.

And he’s not MERELY saying, “Don’t worry… be happy.” Think positive thoughts. “I’m a fluffy cloud… I’m a fluffy cloud.”

No, he’s saying that even when things are hard… ESPECIALLY when they are turning out in ways you didn’t want them to… you must still fight for JOY!

And he gives us the REASON we can have constant joy. He says “Let your reasonableness be known to all, the Lord is at hand.”

Be REASONABLE. Some of your versions translate that word “moderation” or “gentleness” or “gentle spirit”...

In other words: Don’t get worked up by the stuff of life. Consider the fact that the Lord is at hand.

The Lord is with you. He is working for his glory and for the good of his people.

And He is COMING SOON.

That is all we need to know to be able to rejoice.

The reason that we find this command difficult or impossible is that we so often attach our happiness and emotions to the ever-changing, often failing, things of this world.

But when we set our mind on the truth that the Lord is at hand, we can have abiding joy.

This suffering… these trials that you are going through… they are REAL… but they are not ALL that is real.

The MOST REAL thing in your life is that the Lord is coming.

Believer: let that produce in you an unshakable joy that is known to EVERYONE!

We need to inform our emotions with that truth… and then ACTIVELY REJOICE!

Notice: the command isn’t JUST to be joyful… the command is to ACTIVELY REJOICE.

To lift up your voice and shout your joy!

To let your REASONABLENESS be KNOWN to ALL!

Joy that exists quietly in our hearts isn’t enough.

It needs to come out of our mouths and out of our lives.

REJOICING is making sure that JOY is the LOUDEST and STRONGEST reality and emotion we are expressing.

There’s something that happens in your heart… and in the people around you… when you express joy in the Lord!

Illustrate: I first preached this sermon to our church the Sunday after last year’s election… and that week, I was out taking a walk, and I ran into the neighbor across the street from the church named Sam.

Sam is a believer and one of the most joyful guys I’ve ever met.

And so he hollers across the street… what do you think of this election??? (now at that point, no one had called any winner…)

And I usually don’t like to answer those questions because they get me into trouble, so I said something evasive like “Oh it’s something....” (real bold and profound, I know)

But Sam jumped right in and he said, “I’m just tickled about it. The writing’s on the wall that Jesus is coming soon.”

And I quickly realized that Sam wasn’t asking me about who I thought would win or should win… he wasn’t asking me about election fraud or the President’s speeches...

He was brimming with joy because he knew that Jesus had already won...

And that God was working out his plan...

And that we believe Jesus is coming soon… the LORD is at hand!

And in further conversation, he wasn’t naiive that things will get hard…

It’s just that his joy… in seeing history progress toward Jesus’ coming... was INFINITELY greater.

And him REJOICING out loud with me left me with a memory of joy that helped my soul stand firm that week.

There’s something that happens in your heart… and in the people around you… when you express joy!

Were you ever singing beside someone in church and they are singing the song, “____________”...

And they are like, [bummed voice, bored face] “_________________________...”

Or maybe in a kids’ class… You’re singing “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy joy, down in my heart”...

And we all respond… “WHERE?!?!?! Because I’m not seeing it! Maybe get your heart to tell your face!”

Paul is not ONLY commanding us to HAVE JOY… he’s commanding us to EXPRESS JOY.

Apply: I believe REJOICING is ESSENTIAL to standing firm. When we REJOICE we remind ourselves and one another what is TRUE… where TRUE HAPPINESS is found!

Now if you are still finding it hard to find joy… maybe you need to spend more time praying about it. Look at verse 6:

“...do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication 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 4:6–7, ESV)

To stand firm side by side, we need to agree in the Lord’s calling, rejoice in the Lord’s coming… next we need to:

3) Rest in the Lord's Control (v 6-7)

Explain: Paul says, “Do not be anxious.” Instead of standing firm, often we get knocked off our feet by the ever-changing winds of anxiety.

Now saying “Do not be anxious” to someone who is anxious is like saying “Do not be hungry” to someone who hasn’t eaten in three days.

Hunger is a natural response to a problem… your body needs food.

And anxiety… stress... is a natural response of our body and soul to a problem that we see.

Understand: I am deeply and personally familiar with anxiety and depression…

I’ve personally wrestled with obsessive thoughts and compulsive responses to those thoughts…

I’ve experienced the dark nights of the soul…

And I so I say this with complete understanding and compassion in order to help and not to condemn:

When we are anxious, we tend to FEED OUR ANXIETY and STARVE OUR SOULS.

Anybody ever use WebMD when you’re not feeling well… how does that help the anxiety?

Or did anyone turn on Cable News or Social Media when you were feeling anxious about the the things going on in our world? How did that go for you?

Or how about replaying the last disagreement you had over and over wondering what you could have done differently?

We tend to feed our anxiety and starve our souls. And instead we need to starve our anxiety by feeding our souls.

Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything.” But he doesn’t leave it there… he continues, “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Now Paul is NOT saying that if you pray about it, the thing you are anxious about will go away.

He is NOT saying, “Throw up an arrow prayer and your anxiety will magically stop.”

Paul is calling us to pray in the midst of anxiety because prayer is where we encounter God himself.

Prayer is where we surrender our perception of things to God’s perception of things.

Prayer is where we wrestle with our emotions and allow God to inform them with the truth of his word and the power of his Spirit.

Prayer is where we release our control to God’s control.

Think about how Jesus taught us to pray… he said, “Pray then like this…”

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name…

I mean, doesn’t that just calm you down from the gate?

This is food for our hungry souls.

God is a Father who LOVES us.

He is a HOLY GOD who does things BETTER AND DIFFERENT than we could ever imagine.

He teaches us to continue this way...

YOUR kingdom come… YOUR will be done... on earth as it is in heaven.

How many times are we anxious because God isn’t building OUR kingdoms the way WE WANT him to?

How much peace does it bring to stop fighting God’s Kingdom agenda with our own and surrender to him instead?

Give us this day our daily bread.

Wait? You mean I can ASK God for the things I need?

You mean, I don’t need to be anxious about making it all happen myself?

You mean, I can actually admit to the Lord, “I have some real physical needs Lord… I know you are good… I know you have everything I need. I’m asking you to provide” ?!?!

Well that’s helpful to calming my anxiety!

But wait… there’s more!

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors...

I can go to God and confess that I have some real spiritual and relational needs…

And I can trust that he has made a way through Jesus for those to be made right.

I can ask God to forgive me and to help me forgive.

And even more, we can ask him...

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil...

There is an enemy after our souls, Lord… but he’s an enemy you have already conquered…

In your power, we will be safe.

Listen: If we pray the way Jesus taught us to pray, we can have PEACE… REST… SHALOM for our souls.

In prayer, we encounter God himself, and “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard [our] hearts and [our] minds in Christ Jesus.

Apply: Friends, When you are anxious, is your first impulse to encounter the Lord in prayer?

Do you take time to feed your soul with full "kingdom-come prayer” like Jesus called us to pray?

Or do you feed your anxiety instead?

We need to rest in the Lord’s control through prayer.

We need to fix our gaze on him… and when we do, this is what will consume us:

Look at verse 8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8–9, ESV)

To stand firm side by side, we need to agree in the Lord’s calling, rejoicing in the Lord’s coming, rest in the Lord’s control… Finally we need to:

4) Apply the Lord's Character (v. 8-9)

Explain: If you look at that list in v. 8-9... and you really seek to apply it, you quickly realize that there are so many things in this world that do NOT measure up to that list.

Every day, we are flooded with images and experiences and thoughts and desires that are ANYTHING BUT true, honorable, just, pure...

We live in a world SATURATED by sin. And that is nothing new.

In Philippi, simply walking down the street would have left the believer with a deluge of temptations away from the character of God.

And the reason that Paul has to COMMAND them to THINK ABOUT these things is because our default position is to NOT think about these things.

What’s right in front of us is what is natural and easy: things that are LESS THAN honorable… LESS THAN just… LESS THAN excellent.

Illustrate: Think about the “less than excellent” things that enter our view every day.… the things that have no eternal value and distract us from knowing and proclaiming Jesus…

In fact, just think about one sliver of that, this little device most of us carry in our pocket that gives us instant access to THOUSANDS of worthless things at the swipe of a finger.

And I’m not just talking about LUSTFUL images or SINFUL entertainment… though that’s included…

I’m talking about the mind-numbing endless scroll on YouTube or social media...

I’m talking about how many minutes in a day I personally can spend watching some dudes do trick shots with Nerf Guns...

I’m talking about the countless hours of videos of people’s CATS that exist on YouTube…

I like what John Piper says, “A steady diet of triviality shrinks the soul.

If we keep feeding ourselves with unimportant things simply because they are not sinful things, our souls will not have the capacity to appreciate the beauty of God.

But Paul knows we need more than that… he doesn’t simply tell us to AVOID sinful or worthless things… he tells us to THINK ABOUT holy things. Things that are consistent with the Lord’s character.

We don’t just “put off”… we also have to “put on.”

He says, “Spend time THINKING about what is true.”

Instead of WONDERING what is true in the propaganda of the media… set your mind on REAL truth… the truth of Jesus revealed in the scriptures.

He says, “Spend time THINKING about what is pure.”

So not just, “Don’t lust… instead, think about what is untainted by sin. Think about the purity of Christ. If you are married, think about the purity of your relationship with your spouse.”

He says, “Spend time THINKING about what is excellent.”

Not just “avoid junk.” But PURSUE the excellence of Christ. Think about his EXCELLENCE in creation… his EXCELLENCE in his plan of salvation.

In this list, Paul is ultimately calling us to set our minds and fix our feet on Jesus.

For HE is the embodiment of purity and loveliness...

HE is the commendable One… he defines excellence...

HE is worthy of praise.

Think about HIM… and everything that flows from him.

So Paul gives us this list of Christ’s characteristics, and with it he gives us two commands… and I want you to notice the order of the commands in these last two verses…

He says, “Think about these things.” And then he points to his own teaching and example and he says, “Practice these things.”

We are called not just to think and know, but to apply the Lord’s character.

Don’t miss this. We practice what we think about… We imitate what our eyes see.

We live in a hurricane of images and examples that are NOT godly. We have to ACTIVELY THINK ABOUT what IS godly. And then put it into practice. Apply it.

Illustrate: It’s like when you were a kid on the Merry-Go-Round...

And you spin around and around and around… and then you scream, “Let me off!!!”

And you get off and it’s like you forgot how to walk straight… everything feels like it’s still spinning and your feet feel wobbly.

But if you fixed your eyes on a point… like a big oak tree… then you could find the ability to walk forward.

And our lives are like that merry go round...

Apart from Jesus, we are spinning on an endless cycle of sin… we don’t even know there is a problem because it all feels fun.

And then Jesus gets us off the merry-go-round and sets our feet on solid ground…

And yet we still live in a world that is spinning...

The sinful temptations of this world are disorienting… they make it hard to stand firm.

But if we fix our eyes on Jesus… on his character and beauty and perfection… we can regain our legs.

We can fix our feet.

We can stand firm with confidence.

Sometimes we need tangible examples of that in our lives...

Paul says, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me… practice these things.”

The things that you’ve heard other believers teach… and you’ve seen them practice… don’t be embarrassed that you need to follow their example.

We don’t need to do this on our own! We are called to stand firm… and to do it SIDE BY SIDE!

Apply: Where will you look when the temptations of this world get dizzying?

Will you look first of all to Jesus as the standard and only source of justice and beauty and excellence and character and truth?

And then do you have other believers around you that will help you see Christ through THEIR teaching ad example?

Get in a Small Group… be that for each other.

Vetical Gallipolis, the world is a hurricane. The winds are just kicking up. We NEED to stand firm… and we can stand firm, side by side… as we...

Agree in the Lord’s calling,

Rejoice in the Lord’s coming

Rest in the Lord’s control

And Apply the Lord's Character

Maybe one of these four ways that we must stand firm stood out today… that the Holy Spirit is urging you to specifically apply...