Audio Resources

A sermon is much more than an outline, but perhaps this outline will help you follow the sermon. Big picture there are going to be two parts to this message: 1. A warning about the danger of false religion and deceiving yourself (1-24) 2. An explanation of the nature of true discipleship (25-35) But I really want you to hear this message as a direct challenge to consider your relationship with Jesus. ● Are you fanatically, devoted and committed to Jesus above everything else? ● You need to think about that because He was hated and crucified. ● And if you are pretending to be his follower without being willing to actually follow Him, then what good is your religious activity?

It’s been twenty five years, Cornerstone! So we are going to take a minute and think about the past, the present and the future. 1. What are we thankful for? 2. What are we asking God for? 3. Why are we confident? I want us look at Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church so that we will have a better understanding of the significance of the church in God’s plan, what is most exciting about what God’s doing in and through the church, what should be important to us as a church, and what we need most right now as a church.

Part of the Christians life is coming to terms with this fact--Being in Christ in NOT too good to be true. We are given so many things in Christ, for salvation and for sanctification, and yet we seem to go back to our old ways too often. We don't rely on all the good things we're given in Christ. We fall into sin, or we become legalistic in trying to gain God's favor or grow in Christlikeness, without relying on Christ. So what's the solution? The solution is to keep looking at Christ, and continue to be overwhelmed by what we gain with Him! Paul explains 3 things we gain when we know Christ: Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification. And these three things deal with the past, present, and future of the Christian life: it's all of life! Because all of life is supposed to be in Christ! And that's the goal of Philippians: live all of life for Christ and the gospel!

We are so prone to boast in ourselves. We've been learning about this so much on Sundays, and I know it's been getting deep into our hearts. Paul believes this matters too, and goes down this road because other so-called 'spiritual leaders' refuse to humble themselves before God. Even Paul himself knows of this in his own life. But amazingly, he uses his own struggle with humility as an illustration of the key purpose of Philippians...we need to know Christ. That means we need to get out of the way. The more we elevate our identities above others, and prove our self-worth through our accomplishments, the more difficult it is to know Christ and live for him.

In Philippians, Paul has been explaining the importance of the gospel, and the importance of humility. While talking about these 2 things, Paul has already used 2 the examples of people, who are ‘modelling’ these points. Paul himself was our first example; He was a model of living for the gospel (Phil. 1:12-26, Phil. 2:16-18). And our second example was Jesus; He is our supreme example of humility in Phil. 2:5-11. But then we reach today’s section, and we have 2 more examples: a man named Timothy and one named Epaphroditus. And here’s the question…why do we need 2 more examples when we’ve already had 2 examples? One reason is because when it comes to seeing examples, the more the merrier. There’s a kind of proverbs that says “we learn more caught then taught” (aka, we learn more deeply through examples then just getting information). If that’s the case, then more examples helps us learn this more deeply. But here’s another reason…these 2 new guys were ORDINARY models of gospel commitment and humility. Think about it…if the only examples of gospel commitment and humility we had were Paul and Jesus…would we feel confident that change was possible for us? Because following Jesus and Paul is a high standard! We feel so unlike them! They’re are like spiritual superheroes! What about us normal people?! Well, Timothy and Epaphroditus were ordinary men, who loved Christ and loved others…and it’s by their ordinary obedience that their example becomes extraordinarily helpful and encouraging.

If there is one sin that we normalize, it's complaining. Complaining almost seems important to our culture and our conversation. It's as if it's more normal than thankfulness. However, Paul's calls us out on this for an essential reason...it ruins out testimony of Christ in the world. Who's going to care about following a God who only creates complainers? Well, in order to stop us from complaining, and representing Christ rightly in the world, Paul is going to remind us about God's calling over our lives. And, in typical Philippians fashion, Paul is going to do this not in conviction, but in encouragement!

The theme of Philippians could be stated a couple of ways. But here's one...it is GOOD to be a Christian! Paul's already explained that by talking about the glory of Christ, whom we get to live with a worship forever (Phil. 1:2, 1:11, 1:19, 1:22-23, 2:5-11), and the assurance we have that Christ will not abandon us in difficult our circumstances, which are always purposeful and heading towards glory (Phil. 1:6, 1:12-14, 1:18, 1:19-20)! Therefore, we should be confident as we live to proclaim the message of the gospel (1:5, 1:7, 1:12, 1:27). For the next 2 weeks, we'll be asking this question...if that is all true, am I really motivated to live for Christ? The reality is that we struggle to follow Christ, NOT because His commandments are too difficult, or that living for him is 'boring' or 'unrealistic', but because we think about obedience the wrong way, and way too often! Therefore, read Philippians 1:12-18, and ask the question...how does Paul want to motivate us to live holy lives for Christ?

Our series on the Five Solas continues with Pastor Isaiah teaching Part 3, “Grace Alone.” (*Check out the free e-book, a 90-Day Devotional on the Five Solas by Ligonier Ministry through Tim Challies’ website)

We are going to look at Luke chapter 13:31-35 today and talk about unbelief. There's a lot of unbelief all around us. It can feel a little overwhelming. How should we respond? In this passage, Luke shows us how Jesus responds to Israel’s rejection of Him and looking at his response can teach us some very important things we need to understand as we see people rejecting Jesus. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NNYt4PIVdO441IKs_uxtj8z2K0hL8gX4E2873AwdUI8/edit?usp=sharing

Summary Statement: It was necessary for Jesus Christ to become man, to restore us to God's original intention.

Last week we got into Philippians 2:1-4, beginning an argument Paul is making in Philippians 2:1-11. That argument is "Gospel unity comes from gospel humility, which we learn from Christ's example". In covering just that first phrase last week, we considered 2 things: a) The gospel must affect our thinking (aka, unity comes through a certain way of thinking), and b) gospel thinking must result in humility ("a high concern for others and a low-concern for myself). Friday, we get into the second half of this argument, which is really the heart of the argument: "we must learn humility from Christ's example" We can look at this argument in verses 5-11 in 4-parts...1) Who is Jesus? = Jesus is God, 2) What did Jesus do? = Came to earth as a servant, human, and criminal (He "gave up his divine rights" ['emptied Himself']), 3) Why Jesus Did it? = He did what was necessary to save us, because of His love, which led to His exaltation above all creation, and 4) How must we respond = Put on that same humility. This fourth point is really where this argument is going. Paul is introducing this image of Christ because it's our perfect example of what kind of humility WE should walk in. It's a high calling. It hits hard. And yet it's so encouraging; because in Christ, it is possible! (v. 5).