Life At The Ridge

Jesse Maurer our worship pastor is speaking out of I Corinthians 13

Paul begins this new part of the letter with the words "Finally my brothers rejoice in the Lord" and then he spends some time warning them and reminding them to be on the look out for the counterfeits in the church. What do these counterfeits look like? How can we protect ourselves and others from these counterfeits?

As we sum up all of the prophecies concerning the virgin birth, we are faced with a decision of what are we to do with the doctrinal truth of Christ being manifested in the flesh. How does that change us? Paul gives us a interesting topic to discuss in I Timothy 3:16 with the "mystery of godliness" What is this mystery? The mystery is Christ being manifested in the flesh. But what is interesting is that Paul says it's the mystery of godliness. What does that mean?

What do we know about the virgin birth? Did it really happen? How do we know? No doubt a virgin birth is a miracle and unusual. There are over 400 prophecies about Jesus that we find in the Old Testament alone. In fact Jesus Christ, fulfilled numerous predictions that were given of his birth. Micah predicted He would be born in Bethlehem, and He was. Hosea predicted He would be called out of Egypt, and He was. The prophets said He would arise out of Galilee, and He did, out of the little town of Nazareth. The odds of one person fulfilling just eight of the predictions Jesus fulfilled is one in 10 to the 17th power! Truly a miracle! Isaiah the prophet prophesied in Isaiah 7:14 about Immanuel 700 years before Christ would dwell on the earth. The story behind the prophecy is truly amazing and all of it points to Christ who would be sent to be a redeemer for fallen humanity.

Bethlehem was the birth of Jesus Christ. It was also the place where a redeemer would be predicted long before Christ took on flesh and dwelt among us.

Doctrine is very important for the life of the church. The truth is everyone has some form of doctrine that they believe , but the problem is that many of those things don’t line up with the truthfulness of God’s Word. It’s always important to go back to the source and make sure we are getting an accurate view of Who God is and what God says. Scripture teaches us some very important truths about the prophecies of Christ and the message of the Gospel. Jesus’ coming was predicted for thousands of years. The Old Testament contains some 300 specific predictions about the coming Messiah. The very first prophecy about Christ is found in Genesis in the third chapter. In this chapter we have recorded for us the historical fact of the origin of sin, where it came from, how it happened and the result of its effect on this world, but in the midst of this catastrophic event God brings about hope for his creation.

What do we learn from the lives of Timothy and Epaphroditus? These two men are a great example of Christians who followed the example of Jesus. What about their lives can we learn that will help us be joyful servants? We will finish up Philippians chapter 2 with this second part on "Joyful Servants".

Thanksgiving is a time that our nation has set aside a day that we observe a day of thanksgiving I thought it would be a great time to remind us what God’s Word teaches us about gratitude. Gratitude is a constant theme in the Bible. In fact it is mentioned over 150 times in Scripture and 33 times that we find that word gratitude it is tied with a command to be thankful. Are we a people of gratitude? There are lots of things we can be thankful for and rightly so, but is that what thankfulness is? Are we to be only thankful for the stuff? What is thankfulness? We’re going to look at Colossians 3:1-17. Within this text there are three verses Vs 15-17 and they are the summit of a Christians life who is experiencing the fulness of Christ in their life. Thankfulness is more than just a word but it’s more of a lifestyle. True thankfulness is a way of life for the believer in Christ.

As we have been working through this letter to the Philippians we have seen that Paul stresses this idea of humility and unity to the church. We saw this first when Paul told us about unity in chapter 1 of vs 27. Then again in Ch 2 vs 2. Then we were given the great example of humility by showing us what Christ did for us 2:3-8. The last couple of weeks we looked at how we are to allow that humility and unity to be at work in our life as we are working out our salvation without grumbling or disputing. By doing so we will be blameless, without blemish shinning as lights in this twists and crooked generation. That brings us up to where we are going to looking at this next portion of Scripture Ch 2 vs 17-30. We are given 3 examples of humility and sacrifice in Paul, Timothy and Epaphroditus. What do we learn from these three men? How does their lives help us understand how we should be serving one another in humility and unity?

Speaker Tom Obringer

Are you letting your light shine? This is the emphasis of the next two verses we will be looking at in Philippians 2:15-16. Paul says we are lights in this world. The world that we live in is dark and twisted and it's important that we are living up to our calling and purpose in Christ. How do we know if we're allowing our light to shine? What does having our light shine have to do with complaining?

Whining and complaining seem to be a favorite past time of the world that we live in today. In our text in Philippians 2 Paul commands those who know Christ to "Do all things without grumbling and disputing" Why shouldn't the Christian complain? What does God think of those who complain? Has complaining become a respectable sin? Never have we seen such a society that has so much and yet complain. Dissatisfied and discontent are the hallmarks of a person who complains. When we get to the heart of complaining what really is it? Why do we complain? and how are we to "Do all things without grumbling and disputing"?

As we have been looking at Philippians we have already seen that God calls us to unity within the body of Christ (Philippians 1:27). The only way that we achieve unity is through humility. Paul has given us the greatest example of humility by reminding us about the humiliation of Christ and it is that same attitude that believers are suppose to have (Philippians 2:1-8). Now we come to vs 12-13 and there is a call for us to "work out our salvation". This command is still in the context of unity and humility. What exactly does "work out our salvation" mean? We are all faced with a difficulty because it says for us to "work out.." but also it says that it is "God who works in us..." Vs 13 how do we reconcile both those things? How do we "work out our salvation"? How do we know if God is at work in us? What does this have to with humility and unity?

We’ve been talking about unity and humility within the church and to show us what humility looks like Paul is giving us the greatest example of humility by teaching us who Christ is and what Christ did. It’s important to understand these doctrines because God sets forth the truth and it’s our responsibility to obey it. To know who Jesus is is extremely important because your eternal destiny depends on it. There is only one Jesus that can save and that is the Christ that is revealed to us in Scripture, only He can save. God’s Word assures us that every knee will bow to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord. And yet there are people who go on living thinking that they will never have to bow to Christ as Lord and they do this by staking their eternal destiny against the sure word from God. So what do we learn about humility and unity from Christ being exalted? What can we take away from this doctrinal truth that will help us in our Christian walk?

As Paul stresses the importance of unity to the believers at Philippi his attention turns to promoting humility amongst each other by not allowing selfish ambition or conceit to be part of their lives (Philippians 2:1-4). In Philippians 2:5-11 we see a beautiful and powerful passage about Jesus modeling for us an example of humility. This passage is not only important doctrinally as it shows us who Jesus is and and what He has done, but practically Paul uses the example of Christ for us to learn from to promote humility and unity amongst ourselves. What do we learn about Christ's humility that will help us? Do we have the same mind among ourselves that was found in Christ?

Have you ever found yourself having a hard time getting along with other belivers? Who's right? Who's wrong? How can we learn how to get along? One of the major themes that is throughout the book of Philippians is unity. As we begin to look at chapter 2 it is one of Paul's desires that the believers at Philippi would "complete my (Paul's) joy" by being in unity. Unity within the body of Christ is a mark of spiritual maturity. How exactly though are we suppose to allow unity to be at work in our lives?

As we continue to look at Paul's statement of "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" We find Paul with a hard decision as he thinks about how leaving this world is far better because he will be with Christ, but he also recognizes by staying here in the flesh it would profit the believers at Philippi. What do we learn about our lives living here in the flesh? How can our lives be used to encourage and strengthen others? Most importantly how do you view your life for the purpose of living for Christ?

Does the life you live reflect the worthiness of the Gospel? Think about that. Since Christ saved me and resurrected me from death to life, does my life reflect the Gospel message? Paul's words here to the Philippian believers in 1:27-30 were a reminder to do just that. How do we make our manner of life worthy of the Gospel? What does that mean? What can we expect the outcome of living such a life be?

What does death mean for the believer in Christ? Paul stated in Philippians "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain" What was the gain that Paul was looking at? Do we view death as a gain? How should a believer view death? How can death be used to exalt Christ?

Paul in his letter to the church at Phillipi has just finished telling them about his circumstances in his life and how he knows God is going to use them for the furtherance of the Gospel and now we come to this passage here in Philippians 1:19-26 where Paul makes the statement "To live is Christ" What exactly does that mean? It's a rather interesting phrase, but Paul saw something intrinsic about Christ and his life. What was it? The way Paul lived his life brought him peace and joy in the midst of difficult circumstances. How can we do the same?