Author: Jinson Thomas

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Philippians Sermon

Finding Joy in Imperfection -Philippians 4:1-3

Good morning church! We’ll be continuing our series titled “Joy filled Life” from the letter to the Philippians.

It’s been great learning what “true joy” is as we’ve studied the passages together. And in today’s passage we find that the Philippian church is in the center of a conflict situation – it’s in fact one of the main reasons why Paul wrote this letter. There is so much to learn from the first three verses of chapter 4.   Without wasting much time let’s get into the passage:

Therefore, my brothers,[a] whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion,[b] help these women, who have labored[c] 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.

Living in Christian community seemed to be a piece of cake! That’s when I used to watch “church on TV” every Sunday morning. Without much instruction on the importance of church during my first few months as a new believer, I found myself “enjoying” church services from the comforts of my sofa.


In fact, I even thought I had options to chose the kind of church service that suited me – I just had to tune in at the select timing. But a few months later as I joined my first church as a believer – reality hit me – I realized not only was church a people that I was created to be part of but also filled with broken individuals including me.


And that brought a whole new set of questions in my mind. How should I respond when conflict is caused by my own sin?  What is my response supposed to be when I’m caught in the middle of other people’s conflict? Let’s look at today’s passage to get the answers.

 1. We need to persevere in the gospel

Therefore, my brothers,[a] whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

I find it interesting that Paul doesn’t directly jump to what these individuals should or not do with respect to the conflict. But even before that he takes time to explain the gospel and then ask them to “stand firm” or “persevere in the gospel”.


Every time I think of the word “persevere” I think about a marathon – like a 42k marathon. The Christian life is not a 100m dash but is more like a marathon. It’s long-distance and requires great endurance. So what does it mean to persevere in the gospel?

From the previous chapter, we understand that perseverance is connected with “Knowing Jesus”. And I know that we generally use that term “knowing Jesus” quite frequently but what does knowing Him entail? Is it a feeling or a thought about Jesus? Is it merely the knowledge of Scripture? How do I know Jesus? Paul lists out the different ways by which we know Jesus:

  • We know Christ by placing our faith on Him– The most amazing truth of the Bible for us is that Christ died in our place as our substitute. On the cross, Jesus exchanged His pure white robe for our filthy rags. And then after rising from the dead, He declared that whoever would trust in His sacrifice & run to Him for safety would receive His white robe in exchange! That’s what faith in Christ means.    

  • We know Christ by obeying His Word- Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. (Phil 3:12). Because Christ is God and yet paid the highest ransom amount to save me, I’m not going to take my spiritual life lightly. I’m not doing it to gain favor from God but instead I’m obeying Christ to show my love for my Savior (John 14:15)

  • We know Christ by suffering with Him- Another way by which we get to know Christ intimately is by suffering for Him. If you are a true believer in Christ, then at some point you will be persecuted or mocked or insulted because of your holy life, your message and choices. When that happens to us, we get a glimpse of what it might have been for Christ to endure suffering & also have the opportunity reflect His love and forgiveness to those who oppose us.

  • We know Christ by being transformed into Him- 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Cor 15:19) Think about it – if all that was planned for us is to live on this earth for 60-70 years with no eternal consequence, then all what we’re doing is absolutely useless. Instead the Bible tells us that because God is God & faithful to His promise, we will be supernaturally transformed into Christ’s glorious, perfect body!

In the church today “knowing Christ” has unfortunately been reduced to just gaining biblical knowledge about Jesus or merely a feeling that you experience during a worship set.


As we look at this passage, we see that when the Bible speaks about knowing Jesus – it is meant to be deeply personal, active and transformative!!!


Knowing Jesus means becoming like Him! That’s the goal. If our knowledge isn’t making us look like Jesus, then something isn’t right about it.  That’s why it requires “perseverance”.

There was once a generous king who wanted to adopt a young boy from his country. All the bright and talented boys lined up for adoption but to everyone’s surprise, this king instead wanted to adopt a boy from the local prison!


When the king comes to the prison, he notices a boy who is battered, bruised and fully covered in dirt. The one whom no one wanted to sit beside was chosen to be the son of the King! The King brought the child home, bathed him, cleaned his wounds and gave him new clothes to wear.


The King later has a conversation with the boy & tells him that he is so glad to be his father and no one’s ever going to change that. But he also tells him that the boy will need to go to another place for a few years to undergo some training so that he understands what it means to be the son of a King.


His past life was so different from this new life and he needed to be trained. Right before the boy goes out for training, the king gives him a handwritten letter where he’s listed out all the things that he’s said to him so far with his own sign and seal.

Whenever the boy doubts or is tempted to leave the training, he can read the letter to be reminded that he is the son of the King and no longer a prisoner. He should wait for the King who will certainly come one day to bring him home!

Sometimes people ask “how much time should I read the Bible and pray”? I don’t think that’s the best question to ask. You my child. You’re not a prisoner anymore. Spending time with me through the Word and prayer is how you get to know my heart and my will for you.

Some other times people ask “Is it okay if I’m selective in my obedience?” The response would be – You’re my child. You’re not a prisoner anymore. You’ve been pulled out of prison to live a freely for me.

Someone else might ask “God is very important to me but above Him are my parents, my job and my relationship” You’re my child now. Remember how I rescued you from those things (sometime good things) that enslaved and imprisoned you. Don’t go back to that now. You’re mine.

Not only do we need to persevere in the gospel but also

2. We need to express the gospel (especially in the midst of conflict in church)

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion,[b] help these women, who have labored[c] 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.

Euodia and Syntyche were women leaders in the Philippian church who also were actively involved in Paul’s ministry. We don’t know what caused the disagreement between the two of them but it seems like it was left unresolved and began to affect the church internally.


It could be that some people were thinking “How is it that these leaders are not able to resolve their differences?” Some others probably thought “this is what happens when we get ourselves in church ministry, things get quite messy. It’s better to stay out of it”.


And I think it brings us to this important truth – that there isn’t a perfect church – even a church as faithful as the church in Philippi had major disagreements among the more solid & active believers!

Even as I’ve been part of a few churches myself and visited others, I’ve witnessed how many people have been hurt by church and have considered leaving it. The reasons I feel are:

1. Church becomes an idol- We demand perfection from the church or the pastors and when they aren’t able to meet up to our expectations or our needs, we end up getting angry and frustrated. In one of my previous churches I remember telling a brother once how I felt let down by the church because they weren’t appreciating my efforts to present the gospel in creative ways. I only found opposition each time. And he told me something that stuck to my mind, he said “Whenever we make the church or people to be the ultimate thing, we will always be let down. Jinson, you need to look up to Christ who is the only perfect One and who is able to completely satisfy the longings of your heart”. So true – I was looking at the church to be my Savior and Satisfier.

There is a famous quote that says “Church isn’t a museum for saints but a hospital for broken sinners”.

2. Understanding that the church is still in need of grace:  Someone like me who is usually non-confrontational tries their best to avoid any kind of conflict. But what I end up forgetting is as those conflicts are being addressed through the gospel, it becomes the perfect place to display God’s grace.


I miss out on the grace lesson that God wants to teach me during those moments.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed but your biggest idols are revealed not when everything’s going great but when you’re in the midst of conflict. Selfishness, pride, insecurity – all of that gets revealed and so it’s a wonderful opportunity for the church to understand grace and repentance when it’s dealt with the gospel.

Which is why Paul in v3 asks the church (his true companion) to intervene and help reconcile these two sisters.Their role in this is not to GOSSIP about the situation but rather aid with the reconciliation process. Here are a few application points that come to mind:

i) We need to pray for the unity of the church (especially if we are aware of disagreements from within)– We shouldn’t assume that because the church has believers that conflict will hardly be there. It’s quite the contrary.

ii) We need to actively engage disagreeing parties- To reiterate the role of the church is not to be a silent spectator nor gossip, but find ways to make reconciliation possible.


And when the disagreeing parties are in front of you, what should you tell them? It’s not to take sides or talk about platitudes. What they need to hear is the gospel. That’s the only thing that can change their hearts and bring about genuine restoration.

iii) We need to trust the church to help us resolve our disagreements (be it in marriage, family, friends and church members)-  It might be the case for some of us that our first point of contact to help resolve conflicts are unbelievers but we all know that they’ll not be able to point your hearts to Jesus.


They’ll probably only be able to provide some sort of worldly compatibility advice. Instead what if you’re able to talk to few mature believers who can actually help you navigate through your issues by telling you about Jesus and His sacrifice? But for that, it calls us to be willing to open ourselves to our church speaking into our lives.


Sometime back a brother shared an experience of a bitter fight he got into with his brother during a GC. Things got so ugly that the elders had to put them in separate rooms temporarily and later brought them together and the members of the GC “gospeled” them through that process.


Now it was embarrassing for them at first but that day they had the privilege to practice grace and repentance before Christ and the church. Today that brother is one of the leaders at the church & he retells the story as a way to explain the beauty of the church in helping him reconcile with his brother.

I want to leave you with this final thought – Yes, it’s true that we are experiencing present conflict due to our sin and brokenness, but Christ will have the final word! In a very beautiful way Christ is stitching up His body that will one day be a bright, spotless bride! Don’t look at people, don’t look at a perfect church to satisfy you – look at Christ and His perfection! Know Him & Become Like Him!

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Philippians Sermon

Joy-filled Concern – Philippians 2:19-24

Good morning church! We continue our exciting series titled “A Joy-filled life” as we go through the book of Philippians. Last week we learnt that as we joyfully obey God, we are called to fight the sin of grumbling and arguing. But after these instructions, we see Paul’s tender and the affectionate concern being listed in today’s passage in Philippians 2:19-24:

19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. 20 For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 21 For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know Timothy’s[d] proven worth, how as a son[e] with a father he has served with me in the gospel. 23 I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, 24 and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.

I couldn’t wrap my head around this. When I was a brand-new believer in the Lord, I started going to this youth group. I could remember the way I felt like a new believer! It was so comforting and enjoyable to fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ.

But a few months after that my priorities changed. And as much as I wanted to fellowship with other believers and study the Bible, I also wanted to also be part of the church choir and make great music with them. There happened a time when the timings for both meetings clashed and I had to make a choice and I chose the choir.

But one of the leaders from the youth group continued to follow up with me twice or sometimes thrice a week. And he used to come back from work late each night and would call me and speak to me for hours. Quite a few times I’ve managed to put him to sleep with my talk! I still didn’t understand why he would still call me even though I didn’t go to the youth group.

It was something strange and different for me as a new believer. For the first time, I experienced genuine concern for my faith and my life.  So a couple of questions I want us to think over as we start: Is genuine concern for your brothers and sisters important? What does it look like for you and me to genuinely have concern for each other?

1. We were created to have a CONCERN for each other

19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you.

Why was Paul so concerned? Why did he need news from them to be cheered up? We realize even though the Philippian church loved Jesus and partnered with Paul in the spread of the gospel they were still going through a lot of issues. 

There was Internal Disunity – grumbling, arguing, pride, selfishness within the members of the church. If anyone’s still looking for a perfect church, just know that no church is going to be perfect until Christ returns! Just think what the Philippian church was going through. Not just that they were facing External Opposition – they were being persecuted by hostile unbelievers.

And Paul being their spiritual father is deeply concerned about them. These are my children whom I shared the gospel with. These are my children whom I nurtured. How are they doing? I can’t imagine what they are going through. Are they going to hold on to Christ after all this or are they going to crumble under the pressure and weight of sin & persecution?

It’s a beautiful passage where we see Paul intending to send Timothy to the church so that he can encourage and strengthen them in the Lord – so that they don’t lose faith – so that they don’t quit and abandon the Lord or the church. We see here a great design of what the church is. It’s not a building. It’s not an organization. It’s not an event. It is a FAMILY. It’s deep and committed. Not shallow and non-committal as the world sees relationships.

One of the biggest challenges to seeing our local church as a family is our APATHY! Apathy basically means “Who cares! I definitely don’t care”. Apathy ultimately finds its root in selfishness and pride. 

In our selfishness, we’ll say “Why should we be concerned about this person? Doesn’t have anything to do with me. Why should I simply add extra stress in my life by being concerned and burdened about someone else?”

In our pride, we say “This other person got themselves in a mess due to their own decision. If I were in their place, I would do it differently. No reason for me to unnecessarily get involved now”. 

I was convicted of my sin of apathy in this week only. And I had to realize that God’s design for us and our lives isn’t apathy. God design for us – is to show deep concern just like He is concerned. 

In Ezekiel 34 – is one of the places where we see the great concern God has for us. God prophesies through Ezekiel and is deeply concerned because the leaders of Judah haven’t taken care of His sheep. 

4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. (Ez 34:4-6)

Should we be apathetic when we know that our brother or sister is struggling with habitual sin? Should we be apathetic when we know that our brother or sister is struggling with finding their identity in Christ? 

Should we be apathetic when we know that our brother or sister struggling with fear of failure and rejection? No, our desire should be like that of our Father. Deep concern. 

I was really touched a few years back by a youth retreat that I had attended. It was conducted for students and I was a volunteer for the retreat. Now whenever I’ve gone for retreats, the main sessions were the main thing but out here I noticed that while the main sessions took place, a few leaders went aside to a room to pray.

I joined them on one of the mornings and was moved by what I saw. These leaders who have been ministering to these students for many months prayed with tears for each of the students individually. It didn’t feel planned or manipulative.

They were just expressing their concern for all the areas in which they wanted God to work in the lives of these students. Let’s pray and ask God to break the sin of apathy? Ask him to break our hearts for the things that break His own heart?

Not only are we created to have a burden for each other

2. We are called to sacrificially serve each other (v20-24)

20 For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 21 For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know Timothy’s[d] proven worth, how as a son[e] with a father he has served with me in the gospel. 23 I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, 24 and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.

I find it so interesting that Paul chooses to send Timothy to encourage the Philippians. Why does Paul do that? Why doesn’t he send anyone else?

Son in ministry & Faithful coworker: In Acts 16 we see the first time Timothy is mentioned there. When Paul comes to Lystra, Derbe and Iconium in what was known as his 2nd missionary journey, the believers from there spoke well of a person called Timothy.

Paul takes this passionate young believer under his wing on his missionary journey. You can imagine what’s going through the mind of young Timothy. Not knowing exactly how God would provide and what lies ahead of them, in faith he travelled and ministered with Paul for 20 years.

Let’s not forget that Timothy was with Paul when the church at Philippi was being founded. The church has seen his faithfulness as a co-worker which is why Paul could say to the church “you’ve seen Timothy’s proven worth”. 

He didn’t just see the highs of ministry where people were getting saved and added to the church but he also saw suffering. Almost every city where they went, they were met with hostile opposition – beating, death threats and imprisonment. Despite all this, he stuck with Paul as a faithful, trusted son.

In Paul’s mind, this is the perfect guy who needs to go to the church in Philippi. This is my trusted son. My precious one. I have no one else like him. He is genuinely concerned for your welfare. So I am sending him to you. Does this sound familiar?

I think we can see the picture of the gospel at work here. When we were lost and scattered, when we rebelled against God, when we rejected him and went astray – Yet God didn’t turn the lights off on us – Instead He said I will send my trusted one. My precious Son.

I have no one else like Him. He is genuinely concerned for your welfare to the extent that He will lay down His life to save you!! 

Earlier we read about the concern of God in Ezekiel 34…see what it says in v11

11 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy.[a] I will feed them in justice.

Here is our God who just doesn’t have a concern in His heart and mind but also acts upon it. He comes after those who are lost and scattered. Even today if you think you are the lost sheep, just know that He pursues you still. He sent His Son to die for you.

He rose on the third day so that your relationship with God can be healed. You can turn back to Him and surrender your life totally today!

And that’s the main and only motivation to serve each other sacrificially. It’s because God did that to me – someone who didn’t deserve it at all. As God is building a heart of concern in you, He is also calling you to love and sacrifice what might be precious, costly to serve your brother or sister.

It might be our time, our convenience, our comfort, our resources but you will never know how over time God will use our faithfulness to strengthen a brother or sister’s faith.

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Philippians Sermon

Joy-filled Obedience – Philippians 2:12-13

Good morning church! As we continue our series on a ‘Joy-filled Life’ from the book of Philippians, we will see today how the breathtaking view of Christ’s obedience to the Father which we read in last week’s passage now informs us to live in obedience every single day.  Let’s read from Philippians 2:12-13.

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

It was the most nervous Sunday School class for me! When I was probably in 3rd grade, I remember being part of a Sunday School class taken up by a lady from church who was close to my family.

Initially, it was exciting because she was a familiar face to me but then it turned into anxiety because midway through the class she told everyone “I know someone who has been very disobedient to his parents”. Immediately my joy turned to sorrow and I was sweating.

I didn’t want to be called out…that also in front of my friends. As she was going to announce who it was – my heartbeat started racing – and finally, she said that the person was her “son”. Phew! What a sigh of relief. Now the reason I got so stressed that day was because my greatest concern was that I didn’t want to be embarrassed before my friends.

Similarly, we sometimes view obedience as something to make us look good or bad before people. So we spend a lot of time trying to appear to be “obedient followers” in front of others. But what if we saw our obedience as something that our heavenly Father wanted from us? What if we recognized that God is deeply concerned about our obedience?

Our obedience matters to God! And it matters for our joy in Him too.

Three things about obedience from this passage that I think it’s important for us to know:

  1. Obedience involves total surrender (v12)
  2. Obedience is a response to God’s grace (v12)
  3. Obedience is a miracle of God (v13)

1. Obedience involves total surrender (v12)

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence

The word obedience is something that we’ve overused in our church culture and even at home. So we sometimes think of obedience as obeying rules and disobedience as not obeying rules. But the word “obedience” whenever it’s used in Scripture describes surrender and submission. I’m surrendering myself to heed to what this authority is commanding me to do. 

Paul was imprisoned far away from the church at Philippi while this letter was written. The church was having issues within themselves where members were getting into arguments while from the outside they were being persecuted. Paul – being their spiritual father in the faith, what does he tell them to do?

as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence

That’s why I used the word  “total surrender” because I think it captures the idea to be obedient not just when your spiritual family is around but also when they are absent. 

Each day there are many people who come to Mumbai from different cities far away from their homes and families. I can imagine the pressure of temptation that they feel because they’re tempted to think that since they are all alone, they can now let their guards down. They think they can do whatever they want and probably not get caught.

And it’s not just those who come from other cities but you can be living with your family in Mumbai itself but due to college or work schedules spend hours outside of the home. Maybe you get to meet your family only early morning or late evenings.

Even with the church you probably only get to meet them once or twice a week. For the remaining time you’re living by yourself. And I can understand the pressure of temptation that people face to do things in isolation – in secrecy – in private that no one knows about.

When I was new to believing in Jesus, one brother told me something that stuck to my mind. He said “Most of the time people live restricted and self-controlled lives because they’ve got family around or because they’re afraid of getting caught.

But the moment they go to another city or country for studies or college, that’s when they are really tested because they think that even if they compromise there’s no one who would know”. There’s a real danger to living in isolation. 

Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment. (Proverbs 18:1)

It can be relationships that we are in right now that our family or church has no idea about. It can be images and movies that we watch on a computer screen. Or it could be conversations and jokes that we have with our colleagues and college friends that we know are dishonouring God but we would never mention this before our family and friends. In our sinfulness, there is a tendency and an urge to keep a private, secret life.

Both me and Saju even though we are elders here – I wanted to tell you guys that there’s a need for us to fight this battle every single day. We are in no way taken off the hook. 

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13) 

I’m really thankful to God for a loving wife who shows me grace and applies the gospel daily & for brothers and sisters who encourage me to fight this every day.

One thing that has helped me grow as a believer has been this truth – for a believer in Christ, there isn’t a concept of private life. Why? Because all of our life – every single part of our life is owned by Christ. There’s no room for a secret stash. And this is something very important for us to consider.

If we want to really obey Christ, the question is – are we willing to fully surrender everything? Even our private life and that would mean bringing that to the light and sharing it with a trusted brother or sister who would urge you to repent and go back to the gospel. And let me tell you it’s freeing to confess and repent. We end up feeling enslaved and miserable when we conceal.

Not only is obedience total surrender

2. Obedience is a response to God’s grace (v12)

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling

The first question that came to my mind when I read this was – Is Paul talking about working for salvation? Is he telling that we should have good works to get saved? No, he’s not contradicting what he said in Ephesians 2:8,9

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast

Rather, what Paul is saying here is that because you are saved…because you have experienced and received God’s grace through Jesus, you need to obey with seriousness and reverence. We are not working for salvation but we are working out of salvation. True obedience is an outflow…it’s a result…it’s a response to the grace of God. 

The Bible in Luke 7 has an interesting story of Jesus being invited to a house of a Pharisee. A woman from the city who was known for her sins heard this and brought an alabaster jar of ointment and came to the house. She stood behind him weeping and wet his feet with her tears and wiped it with hair and kissed the feet and anointed it with the ointment.

Now according to the culture of that day, it was improper for a woman to do this in a public setting. On top of that everyone seated out there knew this woman was a sinner. And Simon the Pharisee thought to himself – “If Jesus really was a prophet, he would’ve known what sort of woman this is who is touching him – she is a sinner”.

Jesus knew what he thought in his heart and told him this parable “a moneylender had two debtors – one who owed him 500 denarii and the other who owed him 50. When they could not repay the debt, he cancelled both of their debts.

Which of the two do you think will love the moneylender more?” Simon said, “I think it’ll be the one whose larger debt was cancelled”. Jesus said, “that’s correct”. “When I entered your home, you didn’t give me water for my feet but she wet it with her tears and wiped it with her hair.

You gave me no kiss but from the time I came, she’s not ceased kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, her sins even though they are many are forgiven – for she loved more. But he who is forgiven little loves little”.

The seriousness and obedience that we show toward God is often a reflection of how much we think we have been forgiven. If we think we had a massive debt over us and that was cancelled through the what Christ has done, then our obedience would be quite serious and radical! But if we think that our debt was small and minute, that would, in turn, be the love and obedience that we show to Christ.

But not only is obedience total surrender, not only is it a response to grace but 

3. Obedience is a miracle of God (v13)

for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Now, this is might be slightly confusing for us. In the last verse, this is telling us to “work out our salvation” – meaning we need to actively obey God because of grace. But in this verse, it’s telling us that it’s God who actually works in us!!

Wait a minute? Am I the one to obey? Yes. Is God working in me to make me obey? Yes. How does that work? 

During our honeymoon is when I learnt how to float for the first time. My wife being a good swimmer decided to help me out a little. So we found a shallow bed of water where we could practice how to float. She told me to lie flat on my back, lift my feet up and then I would float. But the moment I did that, I started sinking.

The next time I did that, I frantically started paddling with my hands and feet and still sank. This continued for almost half an hour and about the time when I almost decided to call it a day, she told me to calm down and allow the water to handle the weight of my body. She told me to lean back and calmly rest on the water body and before you know it – I started to float!!!

And similarly, I think when it comes to obedience –

  • God empowers us to obey. He gives us the TOOLS which will allow us to obey Him.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3)

  • When we obey – we are actually cooperating with Him – submitting to His final authority and acknowledging that He knows better than us
  • Then we actually see how God carries us forward, strengthening us to complete obedience. 

It’s like floating on water. Who is the one causing us to float? It’s actually the water. We are just cooperating with the buoyant force that is allowing me to float. Obedience is active, intentional, radical but as we are obeying God we’ll see how we are able to do it only because He empowers us to do the same. 

Sometimes we wonder why is it that we are not experiencing that kind of intimacy with God. We wonder why aren’t we experiencing the powerful presence of God as we ought to. And the question we need to ask ourselves is “have we been obedient to God?” 

Me and Glen were having this conversation yesterday. Imagine two scenarios. One where we live our lives for our own selfish goals and pleasures and maybe we do gain the riches and luxuries of the world.

The other scenario where we probably don’t gain the riches and luxuries and where everything doesn’t go our way but instead as we are obeying God and surrendering to His will we are experiencing His power and might in such an amazing way not just in our lives but also around us! I would choose this over the former any day. There is a thrill in obedience!

And God has given us a few TOOLS to help us live out a joyfully obedient life:

1. We are His children through Jesus Christ. Sin no longer defines us. Even though we sin, even though we mess up but we can go back to God and find restoration. If you are experiencing distance from God due to your private, secret life – I want you to know that you can turn to God in repentance. He is your Father who is waiting for you with open arms.

2. He has given you the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is not a weak spirit that is there within you. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:4 He is God and has brought God’s power and presence into your life. He will enable you to wage war with sin and struggles. We need to yield to Him in prayer and surrender. 

3. We have brothers and sisters to help us fight. If you’re a man,I would encourage you to find one or two brothers who love the Lord with whom you can share your “private life, secret stash” and have them hold you accountable. If you’re a woman, find one or two women who love the Lord who can hold you accountable. Brothers, I want to tell you and encourage you that there is immense power in the prayers of brothers and sisters that deeply care for your spiritual health. Spiritual battles have been won. Sin has been fought with. People have been redeemed when men and women have come together to seek divine help. He will definitely answer!! 

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Philippians Sermon Unity

United in Joy – Philippians 2:1-4

Good morning church! How’s everyone doing a week after the retreat? I would say that the retreat was a blessing for all of us and what’s interesting is that today’s passage seems like a continuation on the topic of “Unity”.

It does seem like something that God is impressing on our hearts as a church. As we all turn to Philippians 2 in our series titled “A Joy filled life”, I want us to be reminded of what’s been happening at the church at Philippi.

A couple of weeks back we did learn about the persecutions that these believers were facing because of their faith in the Lord Jesus. But not only were things difficult for them with the world outside but internally things were not great between members of the church too.

Two women who apparently were co-laborers with Paul got into a disagreement and this was affecting the rest of the church. How should the church respond? Let’s read in v1-4

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

“You’ll never find a perfect church!” I remember this quoted being mentioned to me ever since I became a follower of Jesus. It didn’t take me too long to realize the reality of that quote but that presented a set of problematic questions: “How is the church ever going to be united with so many differences and disagreements?” “Should they overlook and ignore all the issues?” “Or should they pin-point and correct every single issue?” “Specifically, how am I as a follower of Jesus required to live in the midst of this?”

And knowing that we have married couples in our congregation and young people who are looking to get married sometime in the future, I want to extend these questions on unity to them as well – “How can I experience true unity in my married life?”

4 points of observation from today’s text:

1. Unity can only be brought about through the Gospel (v1,2)

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

What I find so interesting is how Paul starts this chapter – He starts by talking about amazing truths and gifts that are ours through Jesus Christ. 

  • Encouragement in Christ: Because Jesus Christ saved us and rescued us from the wrath of God, we are encouraged to approach the throne of God with boldness. We need not be afraid of the presence of God anymore.  
  • Comfort from love: For people who were once staring at hopelessness and eternal death, the amazing truth is that we have God who eternally comforts His people with love. “Don’t worry. I’ve got you”. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. (2 Thess 2:16,17)
  • Participation in the Spirit: God graciously pours out His Spirit on everyone who places their faith in Jesus Christ. All of us have the same Spirit who convicts us, changes us, works through us to make us more like Jesus! 
  • Affection and Sympathy: These are words that basically mean compassion and mercy being shown to someone. When God saw us in our sin and misery, He had compassion on us and came after us to pull us out of pit of sin and darkness. 

And his point is that – if we’ve truly experienced these amazing things, then it needs to be evident in our lives as well. 

Right now because we are expecting a child, we do have a lot of experienced parents who meet us and give us advice. A few weeks back someone shared with us that after the 20th week or so, the baby in the womb actually has a capacity to hear.

This parent advised us to be mindful of what we communicate during this period and also encouraged us to sing Christian songs and read verses that the baby will actually identify once out of the womb! And that process continues even as the child grows, what the child sees the parents do, that they’ll imitate and do. Wow! And I kept thinking – isn’t it that same with all of us spiritually as well.

God being our Father wants us to experience His grace, love, mercy and kindness and be filled in it so that we can extend it outwards to the people around us! 

Here’s what I think the application for this point is. If we think that more events or programs or combined activities is what is going to keep the church together or the marriage together, then that’s a very meaningless, faulty line of thinking.

There’s only one way for your marriage, your family, and the church to experience true unity and that’s going to happen when we understand and respond to God’s grace, love, mercy and kindness – the message of the gospel.

2. Unity doesn’t necessarily mean similarity (v2)

2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

My immediate thought when I read this verse was: Is he trying to say that all people should talk the same way, think the same way and walk the same way? I don’t think he’s saying we need to become similar people.

We are so wired in the world to group ourselves around similar people – people who think, talk and walk like us. People who are different from us are labeled as “awkward and weird”. When the world talks about unity – they are more or less talking about similarity.

But when the Bible talks about unity – it has to do more with the One gospel and Savior & how we now care for each other within the church. 

If you ask around the room today, you’ll hear many unique testimonies of how God saved each believer here. Some of us were saved when we realized the purposelessness of sinful addictions, some of us got saved while we heard the gospel being preached at a Christian meeting, some of us got saved when someone personally shared the gospel with us and my own story is that I got saved while reading a Christian book.

So many unique stories but one Savior Lord Jesus and when we heard the amazing love – that He would lay down His life on the cross and rise again on the third Day – our eyes opened and we turned from our sins and ran to Jesus to save us and our lives completely changed! And that’s what unites young, old, dark skinned, light skinned, tall, short, male, female alike. It’s not so much how similar we are but how united we are despite our differences. 

Sometimes in our churches or even in our marriages, we also bring in this baggage of trying to make the other person like us thinking that if we are more similar then we’ll be more united. Not true.

For example in churches there’s always an issue between the elderly and the youths. The elderly people accuse the youths of being free-spirited and naïve. Young people accuse the elderly of being rigid and over-disciplined. But the thing here is that both groups need each other.

The elderly need to be encouraged by the zeal of young people to still remain passionate and radical for the things of God. The young people need to have the guidance and wisdom of the elderly to be able to grow in maturity. We need to learn how to embrace each other’s differences – in terms of giftings, cultural backgrounds, lifestyles, language and see how we can actually learn from each other. 

As long as the gospel is our foundation and love is the motivation, the gospel allows us freedom to actually embrace each other’s differences and yet still be strengthened in unity. 

3. Disunity is a result of SIN (v3,4)

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Please carefully note what these verses are trying to say. The reason for disunity isn’t really style issues, or worship preference or in marriage “communication issues” but the real issue that causes disunity is the “SIN ISSUE”.  

There are 2 main root sins mentioned here:

a) Self-centredness: 

  • How can I get noticed for doing this or that in the church?
  • If I’m serving the church in this way or that, I’m hoping that at least someone appreciates and acknowledges me for what I’m doing.
  • If I do this for the church or my spouse, what will I get in return? 
  • At the core of it, I’m most concerned of how my needs are met in my church or my marriage? 

b) Pride: 

  • I’m not as bad as the person sitting next to me
  • I’ve got more biblical knowledge and I’ve been so actively involved in the church for years
  • This church event or Sunday service is successful due to my hard work.
  • Why should I go and reconcile when I was the one wronged? I’m right! I’ve not done anything wrong. Especially in marriages there is that common joke which people crack – best way to have a successful marriage – just say that the wife is right. I don’t agree to that because in an argument or a fight – both are in sin and both aren’t right.

If I have to sum up all of these statements that I’m sure we’ve said or thought about in our lives, it’ll come to this “I deserve better”. In our sinful selves we all think we are entitled to something better because we think that we are great human beings.

But we aren’t. We are people whose hearts the Bible describes as “desperately sick”. Apart from the grace of what Christ did for us, we have absolutely no hope. And we are no better than the person sitting right next to us. The person sitting next to us needs infinite grace and so do we.

Even though we are believers saved by grace, we need to recognize the pride and self-centredness that is so evident and prominent in our hearts. 

Which brings me to the last observation:

  1. Only the Gospel can heal Disunity (v3,4)

How do you know if a person is truly in love with Jesus? By his biblical knowledge? No. By his charisma? No. By his great spiritual feats and accomplishments? No. 

Look at his humility! And how does a man become humble knowing how prideful and self-centred we are? 

By kneeling before our Savior and realizing what Jesus did for us in spite of our rejection – how He faithfully pursued us, how He laid down everything for us, how paid the costliest sacrifice and opened the glorious gates of eternal fellowship with Him. That absolutely humbles us. 

Brothers and sisters, I want to encourage and remind you of the power of the gospel this morning. I remember many times either at home, or while listening to a sermon travelling or while at a church gathering like this – my heart was filled with pride and selfishness and being hardened.

But in those times when the gospel was preached, I can’t express but it felt like something was powerfully breaking through my hardened heart mainly humbling me and allowing me to receive the truth and instruction from God. If you are also experiencing self-centredness and pride this morning,

I would urge you to come before our Savior and ask Him to reveal His love and kindness to you. Ask to melt your hardened heart so that you can enjoy true fellowship with Him. 

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Ephesians Sermon Unity

United in Community (Session 2 – Ephesians 4:1-16

I want you to imagine a conversation between a news reporter and a Sunday churchgoer. Let’s call him Akash.

The interviewer asks Akash, “Why are you part of a local church?” Akash quickly answers “It’s because I love the fellowship. The people are very nice and friendly and I’m able to relate with them well”. The interviewer then asks him, ” Well, how is the church any different from any social group- like a football club, chess club, or really close family and friend circles? Isn’t that the same?”

Akash then says “no this is different because I get to sing these beautifully tuned worship songs and because there’s a pastor who teaches some really good and practical stuff for life”.  

The interviewer responds by asking him, ” See…Right now we are in a digital age – you can access all of these best Christian songs and listen to the best preachers from your home itself, why do you have to be a part of a church?”

By now Akash is a little irritated by the questions, “He says – what are you saying…every Sunday I have to go to church. I cannot imagine not going. I’ve been doing that for many years. Apart from this, there’s nothing else that I can do on Sunday”.

Now, this might seem like a silly imaginary conversation but I want all of us to think on why we invest so many hours each week in the weekend Gathering and community? Why don’t we do anything else during that time? And I want us to be challenged by this line of questioning. And how much should we invest in this? Is it just 2 hours a week or much more? Is it worth sacrificing your entire life for it?

The first thing I want us to grasp is that we are in a community not because of social reasons or because there’s nothing else to do but:

We are united by Truth (v4-6)

There are these amazing life-altering truths that joins us together.

A) One body – We are many members of Christ’s single body. We may look different, come from different backgrounds but through Christ, we are now members of one body. Glen and I once shared a shared rickshaw with an elderly couple. Saw a Bible in his hand and we started talking. He was a believer and even though he was 80 years old but also my brother and fellow member of Christ’s body.

B) One Spirit – It’s mindboggling to think that God’s own Spirit dwells in each of us believers. And also to realize that everyone shares the very same Spirit. No partiality. We know that as much as we yield to the Spirit, we are being controlled by Him but in giving us the Spirit God shows no partiality. 

C) One Hope – We will be resurrected. Not ashamed. Pronounced not guilty. Living as heirs in God’s kingdom with God even though we didn’t deserve to be there in the first place. 

D) One Lord – All of us who believe in Jesus have one Master and one Savior. There was only one person who lived the life we could never imagine living – holiness example – walking on puddles. Yet He was willing to take on the punishment that we deserved and give us His righteousness. Exchanging His robe for ours. And His sacrifice transforms our lives once for all. Can anyone else be our Master? He is a Faithful Lord.

E) One Faith – Trusting in Christ’s work to bring us to God. Example: A man drowning in the sea and holding onto a rope. 

F) One Baptism – Declaration of our fellowship with Christ and the church. Doesn’t matter if you’ve been baptized in an interior village of India or at the Omkar pool. It’s a sign of your commitment and God looks at all of it as obedience. 

G) One God the Father – In a country where we boast of 330 million gods, the Bible says there’s only one God – He rules over everything, He is powerful to work through everything so that ultimately everything displays His greatness. 

Secondly, the reason why the church can’t be a disconnected affair where we can be virtually connected through Livestream is because:

We are united for Strength (v7-16) 

We need each other to grow stronger in the Lord. 

I) God giving gifts to each individual believer (v7) 

*  Spiritual Gifts – ” Grace” – undeserving gift of God according to Christ’s measure. There is a purpose to God giving you a gift.

II) Wonderful purpose of spiritual gifts

    * Church leaders are God’s gift to the church to equip (perfect, complete furnishing) the saints for the work of ministry. Servants of the Lord & the church – Church leaders are like joints – binding the skeleton together, giving structure and allowing muscles to move bones to perform different activities. Our job as church leaders is to bring people together, give direction (casting vision) and allow people to use their gifts to do the work of ministry. Coach the church so that everyone is active in body building. (V11, 12) 

    * Unity and Maturity – When will we be fully united? when we become like Christ. When will we be fully mature? When we become like Christ. The goal is to attain the measure of the full stature of the fullness of Christ – Christ likeness is not going to happen alone. It’s going to happen with the church. (V13, 14) 

    * Growth is going to happen when each part of the body is working properly. (V15, 16) 

United in love (v1-3)

Even though we have been given “grace” yet we experience issues within the church – making it more difficult to attain unity. “Sin” and “Strangeness”. What should we do? 

Should we quit? What does Scripture call us to do?  Loving each other through humility and gentleness. Patiently bearing with each other in love. Ensuring with one another. 

If we all are honest, we’ll admit that this is very difficult and impossible to bring about this type of unity by our own efforts. So what’s the solution? 

This is only possible through the Gospel. Only knowing Christ and experiencing His grace can allow us to extend that outwards to each other. 

Questions for discussion:

1. In your experience in the past, what have you perceived the purpose of spiritual gifts to be? 

2. What kind of barriers can stop a church from experiencing unity and maturity in the faith? 

3. Based on today’s passage, what are some things that God is calling you to do in a church which can promote unity and maturity? 

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Philippians Sermon

Joy in Suffering – Philippians 1:27-30

As a church, we’ve been going through a series titled “A Joy Filled Life” from the letter to the Philippians. As we’ve been studying this letter, we realize that this “joy” that is being described in this letter is being experienced not through the best of scenarios and circumstances.

One would imagine someone who speaks about joy to be in a beautiful, calm, pleasant, pain-free environment but Paul actually writes this letter about joy in a prison cell. One of the verses that encouraged all of us last weekend was v21 – “To live is Christ and to die is gain”.

So much is the joy and treasure found in the midst of a prison cell and in suffering. And what we will see this week is not only was Paul undergoing suffering but also was the church at Philippi. Their circumstances were no less difficult and challenging than Paul’s. Read with me in v27-30

27 Only let your manner of life be worthy[h] 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, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

I want to ask this question to a few of us whose home isn’t in Mumbai. You’ve moved cities and come to Mumbai for either work or studies. Do you remember the last thing your parents told you before you left home?

Probably something on the lines of: make sure you eat well. Make sure you’re staying in a good locality and make sure that you have good friends. And every time they call you, these are the same things that they check on you.

It’s coming from a place of concern and they want to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself in their absence. And in some similar ways I think Paul is trying to make sure that the Philippian church is doing well. Paul after all is their spiritual father in the faith.

He brought the gospel to them, discipled them, nurtured them and you’d have to believe that they were dependent on him as well. But now they find themselves in a position where he’s far from them bound in a prison cell while they are in Philippi without their spiritual father facing persecution for the same faith.

What is the most important thing for them to know, believe and obey right now? When we go through real persecution in our homes and workplaces because of our faith…what is the most important thing we need to know, believe and obey?

V27 says: Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel. The Greek phrase for manner of life is actually “behave or conduct yourself as a citizen who has been changed by the gospel”.

You might be a citizen of Rome or India but your true citizenship is of heaven and you must live a life in line with the gospel. I hope all of us have this question right now – okay, but what is a life worthy of the gospel? It’s a life that recognizes that it’s 

Because of God and not because of us

3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

As we think about our past – we don’t look at it as glory or something great but rather as being lost and dead. We were not great but dead. In our rebellion and sin, we were incapable of turning to God and responding to God by ourselves.

That’s what “dead” means. But here’s God’s commitment toward us. He reveals his goodness and loving kindness. Which means that we deserved condemnation and destruction but God chose to show us kindness. And this kindness is not because of good works or great efforts (filthy rags) but because of God’s mercy.

Because we were dead, God had to wash what was unclean and repair the broken wiring through the Holy Spirit. This wonderful gift was made possible only because God’s Son – Jesus Christ fully and sufficiently paid the complete price on the cross. He didn’t pay half. He didn’t pay 75%. He paid it all! And He rose again to declare the work is done and those who commit and surrender their lives to Jesus Christ (not me but because of Him) will have no reason to fear God’s judgment but instead enjoy God’s love and fellowship.

That’s why it’s so essential for us to know “It’s Because of God, not because of us”. That’s the theme of the Christian life. Every single day we wake up, we remind ourselves of the same. Every single Sunday we come to the Gathering, we say the same thing. We sing the same thing.

For God and not for us

Sometimes there is this misconception that because of the gospel and grace, it lowers the standard of holiness for God’s people. And that’s absolutely not true. If anything, it raises the standard and shows that we all have a higher calling. 

You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Cor 6:19,20) – You belong to God. You are His. Live for Him.

14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. – Old man – Old person – dead…if you’ve understood and responded to love of God, then your Boss has changed. Your Master has changed. Your reason to live has changed.

Out of Love

And this obedience and pursuit of holiness and living a life worthy of the gospel isn’t done out of reluctance or unwillingness – it is done out of love. 

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:15) – We obey out of love for Christ. Our motivation for obedience also has radically changed through the gospel. We read the Bible each morning not because we expect some blessing from God but out of love.

We share the gospel with the people in our lives not out of compulsion but out of love. We pursue holy living not to earn God’s favour but out of love for God. We repent of our sins not only because we want to be guilt-free but because we love Christ and we want to grow in a relationship with Him. 

And that’s the most important thing for all of us to know, believe and obey each and every day! Even if this is the only thing that you remember from today – that’s great because we need to live a manner of life worthy of the gospel. We need to remind each other about this same thing every every day. 

Here’s Paul’s application for the Philippian believers. He’s telling them that the gospel of Christ & living a manner worthy of the gospel was going to produce:

1. Internal Unity

27 Only let your manner of life be worthy[h] 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,

Although the Philippian church was fruitful, generous, obedient, like any other church they also had divisions and fights among them. We’ll be reading a little more about that in the coming chapters but their greatest struggle was to find unity among the members.

Think about this guys – imagine an army of one nation trying to battle against another army. What would happen if one of those armies started fighting amongst themselves? Total chaos and a lost war. 

You can imagine how divisions and fights within the church affect the witness of the church. 

This is what Mahatma Gandhi said: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” And so many like him are put-off by what happens in a church & that’s why there are some people who chose not to be a part of a church because they see the mess that’s in it. 

When we come together as a church – we do bring alongwith us our sins and differences which is why there is going to be conflict. But instead of quitting and leaving the church because of the conflict that is in it, Christ calls us to commitment.

We are sinful, we are broken, we are different but the beauty is in seeing how Christ unites us and restores us through the gospel. 

Imagine right now if there is a conflict within our church – what do we do? How do we deal with this issue? Take sides? No. We remind each other that we were saved not because of us but because of God’s mercy. That humbles us.

We remind each other that we live for God and not for us. No longer do we live for our own selfishness and pride. We remind each other that we will bear with each other and love each out of our love for Christ. No matter what we will fight for unity through forgiveness and repentance out of love for Christ.   

2. External Boldness

One thing that was happening at the time is that the Philippian church was being hit with persecution. The problem people had with Christians was not so much that they were following Christ but that they were failing to properly worship the community gods especially the emperor.

Does that sound familiar? The decision to follow Christ brought severe social (families cutting ties), economic (losing their jobs and business) and legal consequences (taken to court, harsh punishments and being labelled as traitors). And it’s in this context that Paul tells them that the gospel was going to produce boldness in front of their opponents. 

I know many times in churches we tend to focus on the happy and comfortable things – God’s love and peace and joy that He gives us but if we ignore this topic of “suffering” we end up missing out on a big part of what it means to be a Christian. Yes, you heard it right. Suffering for Christ – not for doing wrong – but for the gospel is a very important part of being a follower of Jesus. 

Yes, and this passage offers two very important things that I don’t want us to miss out on: 

i) Suffering is proof of your genuineness. (v28)

28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.

Biblically – there are many tests that can help us understand if we are truly in the faith or not. One of those tests – is suffering – how we respond to suffering and if we are still standing in the midst of suffering reveals if we are genuine pakka believers or not. 

If we look like the world, act like the rest of the world, talk like the rest of the world and think like the rest of the world, there would actually be no persecution. The world aggressively hates and opposes believers because they are radically different from all of them.

So this should really makes us question ourselves – have we ever faced opposition from our unbelieving family members or our work colleagues or neighbours because of the gospel? And if we’ve faced them, how are we standing? I’m not saying that we won’t experience pain or fear but is the suffering leading us to reject Christ or depend on Him all the more because our faith is genuine!  I would challenge all of us to think on this.

ii) Suffering is a gift of God which indicates your union with Christ (v29)  

29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,

Sometimes it seems contradictory, how can something like suffering be considered a gift from God. “The world will hate you because they hate me” is what Jesus said in John 15. All suffering because of the gospel ultimately happens because people are broken and rebellious toward Christ.

And the fact that that anger is directed toward us shows that we are His. We belong to Him. We are His family. He is united to us. And here’s the promise guys – God is not someone who allows us to suffer while He’s at a distance. His presence is not just with us but more powerfully experienced during times of suffering. 

1 Peter 4:4 – If you insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 

There are aspects of God’s character and love that we can only understand as we are suffering for Him. And that will deepen our love and faith in Him. 

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Philippians Sermon

Joy Filled Ministry – Philippians 1: 12-18

Good morning church! As we are all aware, we’ve been going through a series titled “Joy filled life” from the letter to the Philippians. Especially over the last few weeks, our main focus has been on the topic of joy-filled prayer – the how, why and what of joy filled prayer.

This week we turn our focus to “Joy filled Ministry”. Now we may think – does “ministry” only apply to pastors and church leaders? The answer is no. Every person who has received the gospel and placed their faith in Jesus Christ is called to ministry.

From a new born believer to a believer who’s been in the faith for many years – we are all called to ministry – to proclaims the grace of God that He’s revealed and promised through His Son Jesus Christ. So let’s read today passage from Philippians 1:12-18

Can our ministry truly be joy filled? Is it possible to live a life where we can daily experience joy as we share the gospel? And I understand why it might be hard for us to believe that truth. Maybe it’s our circumstances. Maybe it’s fears. Maybe it’s our reputation – all these things can make it difficult for us to see ministry as something that brings joy. I believe today’s passage offers us three amazing truths to encourage our hearts:

1. God’s purpose is greater than our circumstances (v12-13)

12 I want you to know, brothers,[e] that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,

I think it’ll be good to understand what exactly happened to Paul to get the context. What were the circumstances that affected him at that point?

  • Restricted Freedom: Apostle, pastor, author and global missionary – Paul – he should’ve been travelling to various cities preaching and teaching God’s Word. Instead he’s confined to a room where he’s under house arrest being bound by chains and being guarded by a Roman soldier 24/7.
  • Demeaning Status: He was labelled as a prisoner of Rome. Perceived as someone who committed a crime against the state. What does a tag of a prisoner/criminal do to someone’s ministry and reputation? It can affect it big-time.
  • Suffered for Christ: In the eyes of the world, life was quite comfortable and prosperous for him while he was an unbelieving Jew, but the moment he turned to the Lord things started to get really tough for him. He didn’t do anything deserving to be arrested and tried in a court. The guilt that he’s being charged for: proclaiming God’s love and rescue through Jesus Christ. He suffered for Christ.
  • Delayed Justice: Years have passed since he was arrested in Jerusalem. Multiple rounds of interrogation and court hearings took place but with no result. Eventually he had to appeal to Caesar and that’s how he arrived in Rome. While he wrote this letter, the hearing with Caesar was still pending. So he’s not received justice till then.    

You can see and understand how this was not an easy time for Paul and yet we see him make a remarkable statement where he says that all this served to advance the gospel! How can something so difficult serve to advance the gospel? The answer is in v13.

13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard[f] and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

What’s unbelievable is that the imperial guard are a group of 10,000 soldiers who are personal body guards of the Emperor. Influencers? Absolutely – Big influencers. And the “rest” can probably refer to the members in Caesar’s palace and even the city. We know in Philippians 4:22 – in Paul’s closing words of the letter he mentions “saints from Caesar’s household send their greetings”!!! Isn’t this amazing that members of Caesar’s palace and maybe even the royal family turned to Jesus Christ through this situation?

Because God is God & because He is omnipotent – He can use unlikely individuals in unlikely situations to reach unlikely people groups with the gospel!

Unlikely Individuals: Paul – the renowned cross-cultural missionary – who would’ve thought that God would chose him to minister out here!

Unlikely Situations: Another interesting observation is that this fruitful ministry did not take place in a huge hall or a stadium but rather in prison!

Unlikely People Groups: This was probably the last place most believers would chose for ministry because if things go south then it could mean immediate death because you’re directly approaching the ruler of the powerful Roman kingdom.

I’m sure for many of us – as believers we earnestly desire to serve the Lord and be active in ministry. Although we desire fruitful ministry, the problem is that we want to chose our own mission field! We think “if I had a better job, then I would serve God fully”, “if I go to so and so place, then I would be more active in sharing my faith”, “if God could change my circumstance, then I will be able to serve Him better”, “If God could give me better people around me, then I’ll minister to them better”. So we want our own mission field but that’s not how God sees it.

God says “You are in the perfect mission field that I’ve appointed for you right now”. You’ve been uniquely placed in this phase in life, in this unique circumstance and among these unique people because you’re in the perfect position to make Jesus known”.

Some of you might be thinking “Man, I’m in this current circumstance as a consequence of my sin, can God still use me?” If you repent of your sins, turn away from it today and trust in the forgiveness & purpose that God has for you – you can still be used by God! God is more than able to do it over.

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[a] for those who are called according to his purpose. (Rom 8:28)

How do we know if it’s true? Well when we look at the Bible we see numerous stories of men and women that have messed it up. Jacob, Moses, David etc. But when they understood the faithfulness and mercy of God, they turned to Him in repentance and God used them.

Unless God calls you to another place or another situation, remember that you are in the best and perfect mission field for God to use you to reach unique people with the gospel. That’s our calling! It might look different from the person sitting next to you. That’s fine. But this is the right mission field.

2. God’s faithfulness is greater than our fears (v14)

14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word[g] without fear.

What’s interesting is to see how Paul’s imprisonment is now influencing and encouraging other believers to speak and share the gospel fearlessly. But how was that possible? How can other believers get encouraged by the sufferings of a brother in Christ?

Here’s my thought on this. I think it might be because of the continual joy and witness in Paul’s life. They probably thought – “He should be depressed or frustrated or fearful or bitter by now” but for some reason he’s full of joy and persistent in witnessing. How come? Was it because Paul was emotionless or because Paul was in denial and didn’t accept his circumstance? No, I don’t think so.

Not only did Paul understand that God’s purpose is greater than his circumstances but he realized that God’s faithfulness is close to him, is near him especially when he’s going through difficult times.

Turn with me for a minute to Acts 23:11. This happens while Paul is still in Jerusalem before going to Rome. The Pharisees and Sadducees and all the Jewish leaders are interrogating him in front of a Roman tribunal. At one of the statements that Paul makes – the entire court room erupts in great violence. To the extent that the Romans are fearful that Paul will be torn into pieces. They quickly commanded him to be removed by force and brought him back into the camp before things got worse. You can imagine the confusion and fear that Paul experienced at that point. And then we read v11.

11 The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”

Our Lord Jesus is not someone who just commands us to witness for Him and live for Him while He observes from a distance. Our Lord is with us…He stands with us especially as we go through difficult circumstances. His faithfulness never departs from us! And that’s why even in the most terrifying and troubling circumstances we can still experience great joy and boldness.

Just think about the compelling statement we make when in spite of our circumstances we still joyfully minister to others. Instead of going further away from God during difficult circumstances, when other people see us grow closer to the Lord Jesus then they are emboldened and inspired. Not because they are bold and strong in themselves but because they’ve understood that God’s faithfulness is much greater than our fears!

3. God’s glory is greater than our reputation (v15-18)

15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

What Paul says in v15-18 is that there were two types of people that were being emboldened to preach the gospel. One group were the ones with a sincere motive – they were inspired by Paul imprisonment as we read in the previous point.

But the other group were people who were using this opportunity to harm and damage Paul’s reputation. Although there isn’t too much mentioned about what they did, we know this for sure that they did it with impure motives for selfish gain.

Interestingly in v18 we see Paul make an unusual statement – he says whether in pretense or in truth Christ is proclaimed and in this I rejoice! Now Paul isn’t approving of their wrong motives…he’s clearly calling that as sin but he’s taking a step back to not make his personal reputation as the main issue. He wants to bring glory to God and isn’t primarily concerned about the hit that his reputation is going to take.

And here’s the principle I want us gauge: as we engage with people and share the gospel and when God gives us the privilege to see fruit in ministry, it could also invite envy from some people. They might come and say “I’m more qualified and more skilled – I deserve to have that ministry” and this selfish ambition might drive them to attack and damage your reputation. What should we do that time? Should we fight back? Retaliate? Give it back to them in their own terms?

I think we need to remind ourselves that it’s not about us ultimately. Our ministry is not about us but for God’s glory. The church is not ours but it’s for God’s glory! It belongs to the Lord Jesus. So even as we are fully invested in ministry – we are still in a sense holding onto it loosely.

Saju and I constantly remind each other and we always mention it to you all – that this church doesn’t belong to either one of us. It’s God’s church and He’s appointed us as overseers right now. When God say it’s time to step down from this role, we’ll do that. And this doesn’t only apply to pastors but also to all of us ministering to people around us, God’s glory is more important than our reputation. This deals with humility and that’s why it’s primarily a heart issue.

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Philippians Sermon

Joy-filled Prayer – Philippians 1:3-6

Good morning church! We began a new series last weekend titled “Joy-filled life” which we’ll be covering from the letter to Philippians. Brother Saju set up the series for us beautifully by explaining the source of joy from the life testimonies of Paul and Timothy.

We learnt that the source and motivation for joy came through their “Devotion to Christ” and their “Desire for the Kingdom” which is why they introduce themselves as “servants of the Lord Jesus” in the very first verse. In today’s passage, we’ll be looking at the theme “Joy-filled Prayer” from verses 3-6.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:3-6)

Have you ever thought about praying with joy? For some of us it might be a strange combination of words. “Praying” and “Joy” might seem like opposites. Growing up I always struggled to understand this. We would go for long overnight prayer meetings and I would end up feeling really restless.

I would observe how some of the uncles and aunties would get emotional every time they prayed and so I wondered “Oh! Maybe we need to shed tears every time if God needs to hear us”. Please don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing wrong with all-night prayers and if your heart is being moved genuinely while praying, there’s nothing wrong with that either.

As a child, my own prayers were standard formula prayers that I would try to say with the most innocent expressions. I would keep repeating the same prayer every day. All to say that my observance as a child/teenager was that praying was a joyless activity. And it’s only to be used when things get really bad and out of hand.  And I couldn’t be more wrong about that. What we’ll be studying in today’s passage and continuing into next week’s passage is the topic of “Prayer” – specifically “Joy-filled Prayer”. What does “Joy-filled Prayer” look like? What are the secret ingredients to it?

 1. Thanksgiving

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you (v3)

Paul is exulting in thanksgiving as he’s thinking about the Philippian church! He is expressing his gratitude to God for these believers. In order to understand why Paul starts with thanksgiving, I looked up on all the other mentions of thanksgiving in the Bible. Time and time again in the Bible we see a consistent pattern of thanksgiving:

In the OT, we see that “thanksgiving” is a Command:

Psalm 100:4 – Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! – It was something that God desires in His people

In the NT, we see thanksgiving always mentioned alongside prayer. Wherever there is prayer, there is also thanksgiving.

Col 4:2 – Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. – It’s something that’s necessary

Revelations 7:12: We see all the angels around the throne of God, the elders and the 4 living creatures falling on their faces before God in worship saying “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen” – It’s something that’s done as a response to God

If I have to sum up all these passages, it seems that a thankful heart comes from an understanding of who God is – how great and merciful He is & an understanding of our humble position before a great and merciful God.  It comes from understanding how God is our Help and how helpless we truly are.

If you’ve been around in any church, you would be familiar with the phrase “Thank God or Praise God”. Sometimes we use it just as an automatic filler statement. We know that that’s not how Paul used it here. Paul’s idea here is about adoration and worship to God! Because he knows that whatever is happening in lives of these believers is only because of God.

Even though Paul was known as the one who planted this church at Philippi – but he realizes and acknowledges that God was the one responsible for saving them, changing their hearts, giving them a new life and purpose. If anything, Paul was simply an instrument used by God.

Sometimes we mistakenly presume that we are responsible for changing people’s lives. I shared the gospel with this person, I encouraged this brother or sister, I led worship, I preached this message, I taught this lesson – God is the one who is changing people’s hearts.

We are just channels and instruments in the hands of God. Thanksgiving is the way by which we direct the credit and glory to God! And it’s also something that God uses to keep our prideful hearts at check. If today we are feeling really self-centred and prideful, a good question to ask ourselves would be: “what has my thanksgiving looked like over the past week?”

2. Frequent

always in every prayer of mine for you all (v4)

Another ingredient to joy filled prayer is “frequent and consistent prayers” made for other people. But why does God want us to repeatedly come back to him with the same requests? Does God have trouble hearing our prayers? Or is God trying to wear us down with these repeated prayers? Certainly not. I think there might be a few reasons for this:

  • God wants us to develop a true burden for the people in our lives. How many times have we seen this? That as we are praying for a brother or sister in Christ or for a neighbour who doesn’t believe in Jesus, we realize how God is actually creating a real burden for them in our hearts? To the extent where we are now being moved in our hearts and actions to find a way to fill that gap…find a way to serve and meet that need.
  • To teach our hearts what dependence looks like. Sometimes we think we know what trusting God means but we truly don’t. In reality we are relying on several crutches of self-confidence. And I think frequent and consistent prayers for other people’s faith reminds our hearts that the person can’t change or grow in his faith apart from the work of God.

3. Gospel-focused (v4,5)

making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel

Did the Philippians have financial issues at the time? Sure. Did the Philippians have a need of physical healing among them? Sure. Could there be a genuine need for physical and material help? Sure. But it’s interesting how Paul doesn’t make that the focus of his prayer.

The focus of his joy filled prayer is the “gospel”. It’s the good news of God’s salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.  But why did Paul not focus on these other things? Because Paul knows that they can only experience true joy through Jesus and the gospel. Nothing else. Nothing additional.

Imagine a parent who has a child who constantly gets cranky and demands different toys from the parent. Now if that parent spends all of his money to give toys to satisfy the child’s desire, and doesn’t have the money to provide for food and shelter, would you say that the parent cares for the child? No, it would unloving for the parent to do that.

Why? Because the child has more important needs than just toys. Similarly, our deepest need is not a material thing, is not the best job, is not the most attractive salary, is not found in a relationship – our deepest need is to be restored in a relationship with God which happens through Christ. Our deepest need is to enjoy a living daily relationship with God.

This should inform the way we even pray for our brothers and sisters. I’m not saying it’s wrong to pray for each other’s physical needs but if that’s the only focus of our prayers, then something is wrong. Why? Because we need to be more concerned if their hearts are being cared for. We need to be more concerned if they are growing in their faith. We need to be more concerned if they are living holy lives. We need to be concerned if they are obeying God no matter what the cost.

4. Encouraged by testimonies (v5)

from the first day until now.

Rewinding back to God’s faithfulness in the past is one of the key ways by which we can have joy filled prayers. When we think about how the church at Philippi came into being – we can’t help but notice the miracle wonderworking power of God.

When Paul arrives in Philippi one day he goes out during the time of prayer and speaks with some of the women who were there. Lydia was also present there and the word says as she heard the word, the Lord opened her heart to the gospel – she and her entire family got baptized.

Later on Paul and Silas cast out a demon from a slave woman and her owners put a false accusation and sent them to jail. While they were singing hymns and praying that night, a great earthquake shook the jail and the prison doors flung open.

The jailer thinking that the prisoners fled was about to kill himself. But then Paul called out to the jailer loudly to let him know that they were still there. The jailer comes to them and asks them what must he do to be saved!!! He and his family get saved and baptized that night. From both these incidents, the church at Philippi was birthed out of.

You can imagine the joy in the heart of Paul as he recollected how God was faithful from Day 1 till date with the marvellous work that He began in the hearts of the believers at Philippi! Don’t forget the testimonies…don’t ignore the testimonies of your brothers and sisters in Christ – why because these are stories about God’s faithfulness which will fuel your heart to pray with joy for them.

5. Expectant (v6)

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

We can see a Confident Expectation in what God was going to do!! For Paul to make such an emphatic statement – “I am sure of this….”, he had to be trusting in

  • The Character of God – God is faithful to do this – to do what He has promised. He won’t abandon. He won’t forget. He won’t change His heart and mind.
  • The Ability of God – God is powerful enough to do this. God is fully capable of changing us from the inside out and making us perfect like His Son. Displaying the perfect righteousness of His Son. The work that began before the foundations of the world. The work that revealed itself on the cross. The work that will be fully completed when Christ returns will happen.

Confident Expectation I believe cannot be manufactured apart from the Word of God. We need God’s word to repeatedly remind our hearts that He is faithful and will continue to be faithful.

We need God’s word through all the stories right throughout history to remind us that our God is omnipotent – there is nothing impossible for Him! This confident expectation as we pray for our brothers and sisters will bring about joy filled prayers.

One last thought – I know sometimes when we hear a sermon like this on prayer – our automatic response is of guilt because we know we aren’t spending as much time as we ought to do. But I want to address this slightly differently…I think the question isn’t so much about how much time…rather the question is what have we made our prayer out to be? Is it just a checklist for us that we tick in order feel good about ourselves and our day?

Have we made our prayers out to be only about ourselves? Have we not come to God in prayer because we are self-reliant and prideful? Those are the things we need to be repenting of. And let’s turn to our Savior who is the reason why our prayers are being heard and accepted by God. Let’s trust in Jesus Christ who has now removed the legalistic ritualistic understanding of prayer and given us the privilege of knowing and talking to our Father.

Let’s ask God to transform our prayer life that is filled with joy as we pray for others. Let’s ask God to fill it with thanksgiving, consistency, gospel-centredness and expectancy.

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Hebrews Sermon

Gospel Shepherding – Hebrews 10:23-25

Good morning church! As a church we’ve been going through a series called “Gospel Renewal” and covered various topics like prayer, humility, repentance, dependence, satisfaction, obedience and stewardship and the overall theme was that the good news of God’s love for us in Christ is not just the secret but the power enabling us to do all of these things.

Today’s theme is the last one in this series titled “Gospel Shepherding”. Let’s turn to our main text for today from Hebrews 10:23-25.

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and ball the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Cricket fever is high in the country right now due to the World Cup. I’m sure many of us have been following the India matches. During one of the matches this week – there was a time where MS Dhoni was batting alongside Rishabh Pant.

Right there you saw two generations of wicket-keepers batting together. One of the commentators at the points said something like “The experienced veteran MS Dhoni shepherding the young, dynamic, enthusiastic Rishabh Pant”.

And I thought that was a good way to describe shepherding – encouraging, guiding and helping someone else in their growth. I thought if the secular world understands the need of shepherding someone, how much more is the need for us as believers! After all we know how it’s not just the church leaders that are called to shepherd people but it’s each and everyone no matter what stage you are in your Christian life.

Husbands are called to shepherd their wives. Parents are called to shepherd their children. Church members are called to shepherd each other – shape and influence each other in a way that they are pointed toward Christ. But the question is how? How can I shepherd the people in my life?

Two points:

1.Shepherding requires the gospel

Shepherding needs us to know, believe and live out the gospel. I’m sure most of you were like “Duh. This is like an anti-climax.  Off course I knew that. What’s new about it?” Before I answer that let’s see where it’s mentioned in this passage.

V23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

When I think about “Holding fast”, I imagine the picture of a child holding the hands of the parent tightly. And what do we need to hold fast to? The confession of our hope. What is that? The gospel! By gospel I mean what God has done for us through Jesus.

Now some of us might think “Okay, I believed in the gospel many years back, but why do you say that I cannot shepherd the people in my life without that? Why do I have a need of the gospel today?” That’s a great question. And that’s why I want us to look at this chart on the 3 dimensions of the gospel.  When we look at the Bible we see that the gospel is described in 3 dimensions.

  • Past: When I believed I was made right with God through Jesus.
    • When I put my trust in Jesus, God fully forgave me of all my sins and received me as His own child.
  • Present: Every day I am being made more like Jesus
    • As the Spirit works in my heart through the Bible, and as I yield myself to what He shows me, I am being changed and renewed into Jesus more and more each day.
  • Future: When Jesus returns, I will perfectly reflect Him
    • On the Day of Judgement, I will not be ashamed. I’ll be given a new body like Jesus’ body – free from corruption and separated from the presence of sin. And I’ll be invited to share in His inheritance.

You can see here how there are 3 dimensions to it. The problem is sometimes in our hearts and beliefs, we end up only focusing on one of these dimensions. And that has a few dangers that I want us to be aware of.

Past: If we only focus on the Past dimension of the gospel – where I was made right with God in the past, it can lead us to become prideful and licentious. We’ll think that “Jesus died for my sins so there’s no need for me to work out my salvation. Jesus already died for my sins so now I can live any way I want with no responsibility” forgetting the present and the future dimensions.

Present: If we only focus on the Present dimension of the gospel – where we are made more and more like Jesus each day, it can sometimes lead us into despair. As the Spirit makes us more aware of our sin, we’ll think that “Oh I am so not like Jesus. I’m the opposite because my thoughts and my actions don’t match up to Jesus’ life.

God can’t accept someone like me who keeps failing in my performance” forgetting the past dimension of what Christ did on the cross.

Future: If we only focus on the Future dimension of the gospel – where Christ comes back again those who trust Him as Lord will be like Him, it can lead us to becoming lazy and not steward our time, talents and resources well.

There have been people in history who have left their jobs and left their responsibility of family thinking “Jesus is going to come back soon so why waste time in working a job and taking care of a family. Let me just wait on the coming of the Lord” forgetting the present dimensions of the gospel by daily stewarding what God has given us to glory of God.

When we believed in the gospel and surrendered our lives to Jesus, we did that to all the 3 dimensions. We don’t get to pick and chose one of them. We need all the 3 dimensions of the gospel to live out our Christ walk! That’s why the writer of Hebrews say “Let’s hold fast to it – without wavering”. “Firmly hold on to it. Don’t let go”.

But if we all are honest; we’ll admit that our faith does waver. We don’t always hold fast to the gospel. Like a little child, it feels like we are losing grip from the hands of our Father. But here’s the awesome truth at the end of v23 “for He who promised is faithful”. The wonderful hope for us is that God is holding on to us! He is keeping us. And He reveals His faithfulness through His blood bought promises!

If you’re here today, struggling to believe in the past dimension of the gospel – “When you think…can God actually forgive all my sins? Can He actually wipe my slate clean after all the horrible things I’ve done?” Here’s what Romans 8:1 says There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I remember my 9th standard Sunday school teacher telling me – God in His holiness can’t even look at us because of our filth and sin. But for those who surrender themselves to Jesus, when looks at us He sees His Son. Wow. Even though I was an unbeliever at that time it blew my mind.

If you’re here today, struggling to believe in the present dimension of the gospel – “I know I’ve trusted in Christ, but I feel like I’m losing the battle to sin each day”. Here’s what 1 John 4:4 says “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

God has placed His own Spirit within us. He has written His law on our hearts and our minds so that we can be empowered to live in obedience to God as we yield to the Spirit.

God has placed His own Spirit within us. He has written His law on our hearts and our minds so that we can be empowered to live in obedience to God as we yield to the Spirit.

If you’re here today, struggling to believe in the future dimension of the gospel – “Will God really remove every iota of sin and make me like His Son when Jesus comes back?” Then here’s what Jesus says. “I told you that I would sacrifice my life and die for your sins – and I did that.

I told you that I would rise from the dead and give you a new life – I did that. I told you that I would change you from the inside out and you can see how I’ve brought you so far from the day you believed. In the same way I’m telling you “I who began a good work in you will bring it to completion”. That’s my promise. I’m putting my word on the line. In doing so I’m putting my character on the line to show you that I am faithful to every thing that I promised I will do.” 

That is the wonderful hope that we need! We need all the 3 dimensions! And it’s the joy that this gospel produces which wells up in our hearts making us want to shepherd other people. Not only does Shepherding require the gospel but:

2. Shepherding involves intentionality and consistency

Intentionality: 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works

There is a “considering and some thought process” that goes behind shepherding. It’s not random. You’re taking some time to think about the people in your lives.

You’re taking time out to think about their needs. You’re thinking about areas in their lives where they are failing to believe in the gospel. And then you’re praying and asking God to enable you to love and serve them.

I’m into client-servicing and my part of my job involves scheduling calls or face to face meetings with my clients. I’ve had a few occasions where I’ve gotten on calls with little or no agenda or plan on what to speak and those calls end up being fruitless.

On the other hand there have been times when I’ve had a clear agenda and I’ve even thought through what I want to speak to them and those calls/meetings end up being meaningful. The client appreciates the help that he received at the end of the day. So if in the business world – intentionality is useful and important, how much more importance needs to be given to thoughtful consideration to encourage a brother or sister in Christ?

I understand that some of us are wired differently in terms of our personality (organized vs unorganized) but I think this passage is still urging us to put thought into our meetings with each other. Taking time out & putting some thought communicates that you care about people.

Let’s pause for a moment and ask ourselves a question – when was the last time we took out time before a Sunday service or a gospel community thinking about a church member and considering how could we encourage that brother or sister in the Lord?

When was the last time you took time out to think how you could encourage your spouse or family member in the Lord? Thinking through what would it look like for us to help meet a need? How can we stir each other up to love and obey God?

Shepherding involves intentionality but it also involves:

Consistency: 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and ball the more as you see the Day drawing near.

There is a consistency to this intentionality as well. As elders one of the questions we get asked is “Why should I be committed to a local church?” And usually we try to answer it is by pointing people back to Scriptures like this telling them it’s actually a command from God. And let’s understand God’s heart behind this command.

God’s desire is not to take attendance of His sheep. He’s not a rule-book keeper. His heart is v25 “encouragement”. He wants us to be encouraged in our faith and walk with Christ. He knows that His sheep forget the gospel, they forget the 3 dimensions, he knows that they struggle with sin and suffering, He knows that they are torn by the brokenness of the world and so He wants them to be encouraged more and more.

He wants us to encouraged on a personal level where we are encouraged by other believers and He wants us to intentionally encourage others with our words, gifting and service. There was a season in my own life between the time at my first church and the Gathering – for about a year when I was inconsistent and not committed to a local church.

I kept thinking “If we plant a church, then from that day onwards I will be very committed”. Not only was I disobedient to God’s call of being committed but I also missed out on the encouragement that my heart needed and that I needed to offer other believers.  

So I’m sharing this from a place where God had to teach me this truth – that Christian growth happens in consistency. Consistency of meeting up and learning from and encouraging other believers. Sometimes we think meeting once a month with other believers or once a quarter is enough for us – that’s not how God designed us to grow.

We can only grow with other believers as we interact with them consistently. It’s true that no church is perfect because we’re all sinners needing God’s grace. But it’s a total joy to see how God in the midst of this brokenness actually is restoring and repairing people like us through the church.

And we miss out on experiencing the beauty of this when we aren’t being intentional and consistent.

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John Sermon

Loving Obedience – John 14:15

As a church, we’ve been going through a series titled “Gospel Renewal”. The topics that we’ve covered so for this series are as follows:

In fact, all of these topics are probably taught in our moral science classes & certainly in other religions. But what’s the difference here? While in all the other cases, people teach and talk about how we need to do so many things to achieve a prayerful life or a humble life or a satisfied life.

In contrast, what we’re saying is that the good news of Jesus in fact empowers & enables us to do all of these things!

And continuing in this series we have a wonderful theme this week called “Gospel Obedience”. I’m presuming that some of you as soon as you heard this…you were like “it’s going to be another sermon on how I need to do this and that and then by the end I realize how I fail to do all of those things”.

And I just want to let you know that I understand that sentiment. I remember a few years at a camp that I attended, the speaker spoke on obedience and the title of his message was “the thrill of obedience”.

And I remember being a little taken off guard by the title because I never thought obedience as something thrilling or enjoyable or something to look forward to. And that happens because of some baggage that we carry with us.

We view God as a Rule-book keeper

All of us have had a strict teacher at school or a headmaster or a parent or a pastor –  and we sometimes think of God as being like that – Like a very strict headmaster who is making a list of all our moments of obedience and disobedience and waiting to punish us for every mistake that we make.

And although God is Just and Righteous in everything, but He’s not like the Headmaster that we think He is.

We see ourselves fail to keep up with the rules

The other reason why a topic like obedience could be discouraging for us is because we know how we fail in our attempts to obey God’s Word. Some days might be good in our performance – I read the Bible today, I had no arguments with people today, I completed my daily work on time and I even managed to share the gospel with one person.

But then there are quite a few other days where we don’t do any of them and then suddenly, we realize that we cannot keep up with the performance.  We keep missing the mark. We keep falling and failing. And we keep looking up at the “headmaster” wondering how angry he is.

Has anyone ever been there? That’s why I think today’s sermon is going to be important because it’s going address our baggage that we’re carrying and also push us forward to gospel obedience.

Our main text passage is from John 14:15:

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

If you notice it doesn’t say – if you go to church, you will keep my commandments. Or if you read your Bible, you will keep my commandments.

What does it say? If you “LOVE” me, you will keep my commandments. Love for Jesus is the motivation for obedience!

We express our LOVE for Jesus by keeping His commands. So the real question is do we truly love Jesus? That’s the real question.

Let’s begin changing the way we ask ourselves questions about our obedience. Obedience is not about Do’s and Don’ts but it’s about loving Jesus. Do we love Him? What does it mean to love Jesus? How can I love Jesus?

1. Loving obedience is always a response to God’s love

19 We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

Our love for God is always a response to His love for us! When we obey God, it’s not to do Him a favor neither is it a way of us to receive favor from Him. Gospel obedience is the result of a deeply thankful heart for what Christ has done for us!

Tim Keller mentions there are two types of obedience:

Religious: I obey, therefore I am loved and accepted by God

Days when I read my Bible and I try to live a good, spiritual life and I’m active in the church and that’s why I think God loves and accepts me. Days when I’m not able to live a good, spiritual life – those days I’m fearful and insecure. My spiritual performance determines God’s relationship with me.

Gospel: I am loved and accepted by God in Jesus, therefore I obey

God has loved me infinitely through His Son Jesus and He accepts me wholly as His child. His love and acceptance doesn’t change based on my spiritual performance but on His Son’s perfect life.

Because God’s love and mercy is sooo great….because the worth of His sacrifice is immeasurable – I want to joyfully serve Him in obedience.

A few years back when I was in full time ministry, I remember getting really discouraged after doing 9 months of ministry. 3 times a week I would go to different business parks around Mumbai trying to share the gospel with different people.

And even though some people would initially show positive response but after 9 months no one believed and I found no seekers as well. Plus I would go for all these conferences where people would come and say that they planted many churches in year and I would think “it’ll be good if at least 1 or 2 people believed in my case”.

And I remember feeling very insecure because I wasn’t sure if God was pleased with my ministry. Maybe I was doing something wrong. And I was talking to this one pastor friend of mine who said this “There’s nothing more you can do for God to love you more, and there’s nothing less you can do for God to love you any less.

He loves & accepts you fully and completely in Christ Jesus”. And a weight of pressure and condemnation just left me. In fact that day…a new freeing joy entered my heart to share the gospel! Not because I wanted to gain acceptance from God but because I’m already accepted in Christ.

This is different from antinomianism which means “God loves and accepts me for who I am so it allows me to do whatever I want to do”. No, that’s heresy.

God’s love and His acceptance in Christ – humbles me and makes me want to joyfully, willingly obey Him. I hope you understand this very key point on obedience.

We obey from love not for love! We obey from acceptance not for acceptance!

Not only is Loving obedience a response to God’s love but

2. Loving obedience is always whole-hearted

 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Matt 22:37)

It’s not partial obedience like 50% or 80% or not even 90% but loving obedience toward God is 100%. It’s all or nothing. I’m sure some of us might be thinking “I’ve heard this verse numerous times but what does loving God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength actually mean?” I think it could mean two things:  

  • Delight in God:

Have you ever thought of delighting and enjoying God? For some of us it sounds like a strange thing because we think of God as the “rule book keeper” and we never think about God as someone we would be enthralled and delighted in! I remember when I was in my teens how me and one of my friends from school would end up watching full 5-day test matches.

Sometimes when these matches would be played in New Zealand and Australia, I would also wake up early in the morning to watch it. And this was during regular school days! Quite crazy but at that time I enjoyed watching cricket! It didn’t seem burdensome or tiring to me. 

And now when I think about this – it was for something of very little value (sports and entertainment)…how much more should I delight in the One who Created me and Redeemed me from my sin? He wants us to enjoy our relationship with Him.

As we grow in our understanding of what Jesus has done for us, as the beauty and radiance of Jesus becomes brighter to us, as we see God answering our prayers, as we see God use us to minister to our brothers and sisters, and as we see ourselves looking more and more like Jesus everyday – God’s desire is for that to thrill our hearts and our minds.

God’s desire is for us to be in awe – and realize that we are in a relationship with an amazing God! God doesn’t desire begrudging obedience – that doesn’t bring Him any glory…what He desires is delightful obedience.

  • Not Delayed

Have you ever thought of Delayed obedience as disobedience? I realized this some years back as I was having a conversation with my brother in Christ. At that point I was 8 years into the faith but still not baptized. This brother asked me what my thought was about baptism?

And I explained how I believed in believer’s baptism but wasn’t sure if the time was right. Maybe I would want to do it sometime in the future. That’s when he told me this – “Delayed obedience is disobedience” and it just made sense and convicted my heart immediately. Similarly, I want to challenge you which ever area God is calling you to right now in obedience, what would it mean for you to obey right now?

What would it mean for you to not delay? To not give this excuse or that reason but actually obey God. In some cases I know it might be painful or hard, but would you obey God no matter how difficult the cost?

Not only is loving obedience a response to God’s love & wholehearted but :

3.  Loving obedience is always self-sacrificial

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments (1 John 5:2)

For me this was a little strange verse initially because I kept thinking what’s the relationship between loving the children of God and my obedience? The two things seem separate and contrasting.

How is my obedience or disobedience related to loving someone else? Well, that’s the biggest myth we need to put out. Our personal obedience is not just between us and God. Our obedience/disobedience is always affecting other people- our families, our church and the people we interact with on a daily basis.

Let’s say for example I’m harboring unforgiveness against someone else. I know I need to repent & reconcile but I’m disobedient, what happens? I’ll keep a distance from the church. I’ll try to be isolated. But am I truly being loving?

No, I’m actually withholding the church members from receiving my gifts, my encouragement, my comfort and service that God has given me. So my disobedience is actually not just grieving the heart of God, and affecting the other person but also the whole church. This is just one example.

Similarly, what the area in your life where God is calling you to obey Him self-sacrificially? You know that your disobedience is not just affecting your relationship with God but also the other people that are doing life with you.

In the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the fruit – with that one act of disobedience idolatry, adultery, immorality, murder, theft, lies and every other kind of sin and wickedness flowed into their hearts.

And with that the guilt and shame associated with disobedience.  And we all were born with that very same nature of disobedience. But when Jesus Christ the Son of God came to the earth, unlike us he did not have that nature and lived a perfect life of obedience.

And through His death and resurrection – he paid for our lifetime of disobedience once for all and not just that but reversed and began the restoration process for us who believe so that one day when He returns we will be like Him perfectly obedient to God – not out of our will or efforts but totally by the grace of God. So let that encourage our hearts today – if we have repented of our sins & truly trusted in the finished work of Jesus, then where we are today is not where we will be when He returns.

He will fully and completely finish the work of reversal and restoration that He began at the cross. Let that be our hope. Amen!