Resurrection Day
Summary
Transcript
· Cross Church, Phoenix. How are you?
· Good morning. Welcome in. Happy Resurrection Sunday.
· Amen. He is risen. And he is risen indeed. Amen. Christ has triumphed over email. Uh over email. Uh Christ has triumphed over evil. It was finished upon that cross.
· Good morning and happy resurrection Sunday. I'm Pastor DJ. I'm the pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix. So, if you're new here, welcome. Um it is a joyous time and uh I just I love to see what God is doing. And so, um I just man, it is amazing to not only reflect on what he has done, but to see what he is actively doing in the lives of his people as we celebrate. We have four baptisms this service. We had one at 9:00 a.m. We have four more today. So, uh praise God.
· At this time, I invite you to open your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3. And if you need a Bible, there should be one in the seat back in front of you. And if you don't have a Bible, that is your Bible, then you can keep it. That is our gift to you. You can mark it, you can highlight it, you can make notes, whatever you want. It's your Bible.
· We'll gladly replace it. And I think I'm actually at the point where I need to order more. Anyway, I also want to extend uh as Brian said, my personal thanks and gratitude to everyone involved in putting on our sunrise service and breakfast. It was wonderful. Praise the Lord. And you know who you are, but thank you for putting that on. The book of Philippians is known as the epistle or the letter of joy.
· Paul is writing Philippians. He's writing to the church at Philippi from prison. And it is known as the epistle of joy because it's so joyful. And it is, but it's also very confrontational. And that can be the hard part because he will say some difficult things in our text this morning. Aside from the Bible, one of the books I personally believe should be mandatory reading for every Christian is Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunan.
· Bunan wrote Pilgrim's Progress while in prison himself for preaching the gospel and it was published in 1678. It's an almost 400year-old book and it's amazing and it's actually never alongside the Bible. It has never been out of print.
· Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of the Christian life. It tells the story of Christian, who's the main character, uh how he gets saved and how he continues to live the Christian life as he navigates the temptations and the trials of life. I highly recommend reading it. But for our purposes this morning, I want to share with you the beginning of the story.
· It begins with Christian, that's his name. It begins with Christian who lives in the city of destruction. He lives in the city of destruction. And because this is an allegory, as an allegory, everything is representative. So the city of destruction represents the world. The world. While living in the city of destruction, Christian begins reading a book. It's representative of the Bible. And he becomes aware of a heavy burden he is bearing.
· His burden is his sin and his burden grows on his back and it becomes heavier and heavier and bigger and bigger. You can watch movie adaptations of this or interpretations of it if you want. But this burden of sin is permanently attached to him. It's almost pictured like a backpack that is fixed to you. You can't get rid of it.
· Christian, no matter what he does, he can't get rid of it himself. It is fixed to him. And he cannot, no matter how hard he tries, break free of it. And it grows and it gets heavier and it weighs him down more and more and is breaking him.
· While Christian is in the city of destruction pondering his burden of sin and reading his book, he ends up crying out, "What shall I do to be saved?"
· He wants out of the city of destruction. He wants freedom from his burden but doesn't know where to go or how to do it until he meets a man named Evangelist.
· He meets a man named Evangelist who comes and asks him why are you crying?
· Why are you crying?
· Christian explains his burden of sin and his fear of being destroyed in the city of destruction and that he doesn't know what to do.
· And so what evangelist does is he gives him what Bunan describes, remember this is the 1600s, a parchment roll. Now some people think it's representative of the Bible or it could be a tract, you know, like a gospel tract. Either way, it's truth. He gives them a parchment roll that reads, "Flee the wrath to come."
· That's what it says. "Flee the wrath to come." And what he does is he points Christian to the wicked gate. He says, "Do you see the wicked gate over yonder?" And Christian's like, "I can't quite see it." He says, "You see the bright light shining?" He says, "Yes, I see the light." in and evangelist says flee the city of destruction and run to the wicked gate.
· Now the wicked gate is a small gate that represents Christ being the narrow way that leads to eternal life and John Bunan's term for eternal life is the celestial city. So the story is about Christian's pilgrimage, leaving the city of destruction and journeying on the narrow path that leads to the celestial city.
· I say all of that to say this. One of the great things Bunan does is show the difference between those who are headed for the celestial city and those in the city of destruction. There is a difference. Those who are heading for destruction are one way and those heading for the celestial city are another way and there's a difference. That's what Paul's saying here in Philippians chapter 3.
· This is the message of Paul from God in Philippians chapter 3.
· if you have a handout this morning. If you don't, we have little uh handouts that have the outline of the sermon, some fill-in- thelanks, some notes if you would like. And if you don't, that's okay. But in my attempt to be creative, which usually doesn't go very well, um but you'll see the two main heading sections. How to know if you're headed to the celestial city and then how to know if you're still in the city of destruction.
· Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the shed blood of Jesus Christ who washes away our sin and bids us come to him for life because we don't have it on our own. God, I pray that you would give us ears to hear what the spirit would say to the church at Cross Church Phoenix, this congregation this morning in Jesus name.
· Amen. I'm going to ask you if you're able to stand with me as we read Philippians 3 10-21. I know the outline might say 12. We're going to actually start in verse 10. And if you can't stand with us or that's diff that's fine. Stand with us in spirit. But Paul says in Philippians 3 backing in verse up to verse 10 in in the CSB.
· The translations some some are different here. Um but I am reading from the CSB.
· He says this. My goal is to know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. Not that I have already reached the goal or imperfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I have all I have also been taken hold of by Christ by Christ Jesus.
· Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
· Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.
· For I have often told you, and now say again with tears that many, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
· Their end is destruction. Their god is their stomach. Their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly wait for a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself. Amen. And you can be seated.
· In verse 12, Paul says, "Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it." What's the it?
· The it is the goal, right?
· He's saying he hasn't reached the goal, but he makes every effort to because here's why he makes every effort to reach that goal. Because he's been taken hold of by Christ.
· So the question is then what goal is he talking about? What is this goal or what is this thing that he is pursuing striving toward?
· And verse 10 is the answer. As a Christian, as a believer in Jesus, Paul's goal is to know him and to know the power of his resurrection and to know the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. That's the goal.
· verse 12-4 are describing Paul's pursuit of those goals. Okay. So he uses words like make every effort uh forgetting what lies behind and reaching or straining forward toward straining striving toward what's ahead. Uh he says pursuing the goal uses words like pressing on toward the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus. What is he saying?
· He is describing his passionate pursuit of knowing Christ more, knowing the power of his resurrection more, and knowing the fellowship of his sufferings more.
· And in verse 15, Paul says, what mature Christians think this way? Think what way? They share the goal of knowing Christ more, knowing the power of his resurrection more, knowing the fellowship of his sufferings more. And then he even says, um, if you think differently, okay, God will reveal this also to you, right? In time, he will reveal this to you. Maybe someone's not mature in their walk yet, and he's saying, God will show this to you. In any case, live up to, he says, the truth you've attained. What does that mean?
· He's saying live what you do know to be truth and God in his time will reveal more to you is what he's saying. Then he says in verse 17 which is the exhortation. Verse 17 contains the two commands of the passage or the two imperatives of the passage. Join in imitating me is a command. He's telling the Philippians, "Imitate me.
· This mindset that I have, this drive that I have in pursuit of the goal of knowing Christ more." And when he says, "And pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. Pay careful attention is a command." He's saying not only to join in imitating him, but follow the example of anyone who shares that goal.
· Paul is saying Philippian believers live like me not in a proud self-righteous sense but he's saying my goal my focus my aim is to pursue what he said in verse 10 and he's saying follow that and here's the kicker if you look down at verse 20 and we'll address 18 and 19 the hard part of the chapter Look down at verse 20. What does he say?
· For our citizenship is in heaven. Our citizenship, the ones whose goal is to know Christ and know his resurrection and know his sufferings, those ones are citizens of heaven. They're the ones who eagerly wait for their savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And verse 21 is what we look forward to him doing. We want to know Christ more.
· And then we look forward to what he's going to do in and through us, transforming our humble bodies into the likeness of his glorious body by his power. The same power that he has to subject everything under himself is the same power that will change you into glory.
· So our first main heading is this. How to know if you're headed to the celestial city. Or if you want to use Paul's words, how to know if you're a citizen of heaven. The first way to know is this. Your goal is to know Christ more.
· Is your goal to know Christ more?
· Do you long to know Christ more today than yesterday?
· Do you hunger and thirst to get to know your savior more? to study his word and to see Christ more vividly, more clearly, and grow in your love for him. That's characteristic of one who's headed to the celestial city or one whose citizenship is in heaven. That's what Paul is communicating because the fact of the matter is some Christians know more statistics of their favorite sports teams than they do about Christ.
· Right now, there's nothing wrong with knowing sports stats in of in and of themselves, but do you pursue knowledge of that, just as an example, more than Christ?
· Knowing Christ is more important than sports, politics, movies, social media, whatever you're into, consider it nothing compared to knowing Jesus Christ. In the full context of the passage, if you were to read the whole chapter, you would come across verse seven, which Paul says, I consider everything. Not some things, everything loss compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ.
· He's saying that knowing Christ is of such great value, he's placing such great weight on it that everything else pales in comparison to that everything is loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. Do you long to know more of Christ in that way?
· If so, that's ed that's evidence your citizenship is in heaven. Point number two, surprise surprise, it's just the passage, right? Our second point is your goal is to know the power of his resurrection.
· Now, you say, how do we grow in our knowledge of the power of his resurrection?
· This is a desire married up with knowing Christ. He says,"I want to know Christ more. I want to know him more. And then also, I want to know the power of his resurrection." Meaning, I want to know how to live for him more. That's what he's saying.
· This is a desire to not only just know Christ, but to know how to live for him better. That's knowing the power of his resurrection. knowing how to live for him better as a result of knowing him.
· How can I better live the new life I have in Christ because of his resurrection led by the Holy Spirit? How can I walk how Christ wants me to walk?
· In Colossians chapter 1, Paul writes in verse 9, "We haven't stopped praying for you." And here's the contents of those prayers. He says, "We are asking that you, church at Colasse, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding so that that's a purpose statement.
· I want you to be filled with the knowledge of Christ and his will so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might. In Romans 8, Paul says that the spirit, get this, the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you.
· Do you understand that? The same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same one who lives in you. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, he indwells you and leads you and guides you in righteousness. The same one.
· The same one.
· This is not spirit 2.0. This is not B team Holy Spirit. It's the same one.
· Do we have a hunger and thirst for righteousness?
· You know, after Paul says that in Romans 8, the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you. He says, "Therefore, we don't live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." This is a call to live differently because you know Christ. Do you have a longing to pursue and live a holy life by the power of the Holy Spirit? If so, if so, it's evidence you're a citizen of heaven.
· Third, surprise, surprise, your goal is to know the fellowship of his sufferings.
· Now, this is the part we kind of want to skip, right?
· Yeah, I want to know Christ and I want to know how to live him for a fellowship of his sufferings. I don't know about that, right?
· You may want to know Christ more. You may want to know the power of his resurrection more. Can you say you want to know the fellowship of his sufferings?
· Living a holy life, loving Christ, being saturated by scripture and living by its truths will come with opposition from this hostile world.
· Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3. This is the last letter um that we have from Paul. This is before his martyrdom. He's going to be beheaded shortly thereafter. After he writes this letter, he's going to be killed for the sake of Christ in the gospel. And what does he tell Timothy? Indeed. Right? We say on Easter, he is risen. He is risen indeed. Paul says indeed. All, count it, all not some.
· All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. It doesn't say might be. Um it doesn't say could be. It says will be because the Bible is countercultural to our world. And if we proclaim it and live by it, we will be hated. You say hated is a strong word, DJ. It's the words of Jesus. What did he tell his disciples?
· If the world hates you, know this. It has hated me first. There is no disciple of Christ who's been hated before Christ. Christ was hated first before any disciple of his ever was.
· This isn't to say Christians go looking for suffering or looking for persecution. But when it comes, can you count it a joy to know his sufferings?
· If you live a godly life in Christ, no matter what the world throws at you, it's evidence you're a citizen of heaven. Or if we want to use our Pilgrim's Progress analogy, you're on the road to the celestial city. Here comes the hard part. As I studied this passage, I was like, "Yep, this one's going to be hard." It's not your typical Easter message. There is another group of people in this text.
· There's a different kind of people Paul introduces in verse 18 and 19. And they are those who live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Enemies of the cross of Christ.
· Notice the change from Paul uh for you English folks from the first person to the third person. But for um for people like me who was like what? Um I had to figure that one out. Um talking Paul talking about the eyes's and the uses's and the we and switching then to the they and the theirs.
· Let me give you a couple examples. You know we see in verse 12 right not that I have already reached the goal or 13 I don't consider myself to have taken hold of it. One thing I do uh verse 14 I pursue this goal. Therefore, verse 15, let all of us think this way. Um, in any case, verse 16, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.
· Join in imitating me. Pay careful attention to those living to the example according to the example you have in us.
· And then if you jump down to verse 20, the great contrast, but our citizenship is in heaven. But if you look at verse 18, he says, I have often told you and now say again with tears that many, not not a little, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. And he instantly goes to there and his destruction. There God is their stomach. There glory is their shame. They are focused on earthly things. But our see the contrast. But our citizenship is in heaven.
· And we look eagerly wait for a savior Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body. The first thing Paul says is their end is destruction. Verse 19, their end is destruction.
· Who's that? Those who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ, their end is destruction. And so that's our second main heading. If you again, if you have a handout or a notetaker, how to know if you're still in the city of destruction. And again, this is where I don't get creative. I'm just going to use the Bible passages. The first way to know is your God is your stomach.
· What does that mean? What does it mean to have your stomach be your God?
· What that means is living to fulfill your sinful appetites. That's what that means. To be focused on pleasing yourself as your own God. The word here for stomach is a broader Bible way of saying it's a broader reference to say sensual indulges in general meaning you live to please you because you're your own god do you to put it in modern terms to have your god be your stomach is what you do you
· very Gary in Greek uh the same word translated stomach here is translated as heart uh in John 7:38 where Jesus says whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
· Jesus is saying if you believe in him out of your innermost being, from the very essence of who you are, rivers of living water will flow. He's not saying that your actual heart that's beating in your chest will explode with water cuz you die, right? You wouldn't be here if that were the case. He's talking about your innermost being. And Paul uses the same word here for stomach, being your innermost being.
· He's saying that to walk as an enemy of the cross of Christ is to have your heart set on you being your own God instead of Christ. Instead of living to please God, you live to please yourself. Maybe you live um for more money, more sex, more pornography, more influence on social media, more of whatever it takes to fulfill your lustful desires, you live for that.
· That means your God is your stomach. If you live for those things and not Christ, Paul's saying that's evidence that your end is destruction. Living in that way is opposition to the cross of Christ because Christ died to save you from those things. If you live for those things, obviously you have not had an encounter with the cross of Christ is what he's saying.
· My wife made me a shirt one time from a quote from one of my preachers and it said this. It says, "We should not be entertained by the sins for which Christ died."
· Interesting. And I love that because it helps you re-evaluate what you watch right on TV. We should not be entertained by the sins for which Christ died. Are you entertained by lust? Are you entertained by sex outside of marriage? Are you entertained by filthy talk? Things like that?
· Are you entertained by sin?
· If you live for those things, Paul says your end is destruction. It is saying you're still in the city of destruction. Number two, our second way. Surprise, surprise, your glory is your shame. Your glory is your shame. At a fundamental level, this means living to show off things for which you ought to be ashamed. It means enjoying and celebrating what God opposes. It's being for what God is against. It's being pro- sin. That's what that means.
· It means glorying in sin. Maybe it's sexual sin, any kind of sin. It means having pride. Pride in what God says is an abomination in sin. We live not only in a world that celebrates sin, but also in a time when some churches celebrate sin. The whole month of June is dedicated to what? Gay pride month.
· Think through what does God say in Romans 1? It is sin and gay pride month is glorying in what God says ought to be shame and calls it, Paul calls it men committing shameful acts with men and women committing shameful acts with women. And what is he talking about? Let's get real. It's not cultural. It's biblical.
· It is an example of glorying in what God says is sin. And people can glory in their shame in other ways. For example, um men celebrating how many women they've been with. Uh people celebrating how drunk or high they can get. Being proud of stealing, robbing, cheating, murdering. All of it is glorying in shame. And according to God's word, it's evidence your end is destruction.
· Third, finally, the last way to know you're still in the city of destruction is your focus is on earthly things. Your focus is on earthly things. As one person, as one pastor put it, these are people who prefer their Xbox and social media over God in his word. I like that. That was good. Not that you can't play video games or be on Facebook, but it means that your focus, if that's your focus, if that consumes you, you're wrong.
· Instead of your God being yourself, your stomach, this is saying your god is whatever else in the world you worship other than Christ. That's what this is saying. The same pastor uh Tony Merida who said the thing about the Xbox also said this quote don't think you will become like Jesus by watching reality TV or listening to talk radio constantly.
· I like that. Thought that was good. Not that you can't uh watch TV or listen to talk radio. What he's saying is don't expect to become more like Christ if that's all you do all day every day. While the Bible collects dust on the shelf, you're up to date on the latest reality TV show. Your focus then is on earthly things. That's what is being communicated here.
· What Paul is basically getting at is living for earthly things. Getting caught up in earthly things and letting earthly things consume you is not characteristic of a citizen of heaven.
· Is that you?
· Are you focused on the things of this world?
· Are you captured by the things of this earth rather than being captured by Christ? Remember he said, "I have been taken hold of Christ, so I pursue Christ." Are you here? And have you been taken hold of by the world? And so you pursue more of the world. What you've been taken hold of, you'll pursue.
· Have you been taken hold of Christ?
· If so, if you if you've been taken hold of and pursue the world and focus on earthly things, Paul is saying that is evidence that your end is destruction. The bottom line is this.
· Are you headed for the celestial city or are you still in the city of destruction?
· That's the question this morning.
· Or if we want to use Paul's words, okay, are you a citizen of heaven or is your end destruction?
· That's what he's communicating.
· There's only two options. There's not a third option. You can't be like, "Yeah, Pastor DJ, I would like door number three." Um, you know, or some people say, "Well, I'm on the fence." You don't want to be on the fence. Could I tell you two things? Number one, there is no fence. There is God and Christ and there is Satan, death, sin, and hell. Um, there is no fence. But if you want to say for the sake of argument, there is a fence. Satan owns the fence.
· If you must have the fence, fine. Satan owns the fence. Do you want to be on it?
· No.
· There is no fence. There's no third option. A citizen of heaven end is destruction. There's not like an in between. Well, his end is half destruction, half citizen of heaven. We'll kind of give him a 50%. He'll be like half miserable for eternity, half happy for eternity, and we'll call it good. That doesn't exist. That's not It's Christ in heaven forever in the glory of God, eternal separation from God in hell. Those are the options.
· And if you're here and you're a Christian, this is an exhortation. the commands to imitate Paul be an example of what following Christ should look like. Would you want someone following Christ the way you do is a good question to reflect on. Not that you're perfect, Paul says. Not that I I haven't achieved perfection, but one thing I do is I pursue these things.
· We should be too. If you call Christ your personal Lord and Savior, that should be you should be taken hold of by that and pursue that then and pursue knowledge of Christ and live as an example. If you're here and God is calling you out from the city of destruction, respond today.
· Don't delay. If you're being called out from the city of destruction and into the celestial city or if you're being called out from your end being destruction to be a citizen of heaven, don't delay. Come to Christ now.
· Resurrection Sunday. Every day is a good day to come to Christ. But why not today?
· The Bible says today is the day of salvation. You don't know what tomorrow will bring. Of course not.
· If that's you, please come find me. And I plead with you with as much as I could plead, so to speak. If I can just plead with you to flee the city of destruction like evangelist told Christian, "Run to Christ and come to him for forgiveness of sin." When he tells Christian to run to the wicked gate and knock on it, he says, "Go knock." And when Christian arrives, he's knocking incessantly knocking. And that's the picture here.
· Seek him. Come in. And the door is open to Christian.
· That's the picture.
· I'll leave you with the words of Jesus Christ himself. Matthew 7:3. You say, "DJ, this sounds a little harsh." Well, wait till you hear Jesus. Okay. Jesus says, "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many, many people are on the wide road to destruction."
· But Matthew 7:14, Jesus says, "For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few." What is he saying? There's more people on the road to destruction than there are on the road to life is what he's saying. Don't be one of them on the wide road that leads to destruction. Don't be it.
· You've been warned. If Easter is the only time you come to church, God is telling you this. This is not Pastor DJ's opinion or life story that I'm giving you. I'm telling you what God says about your state. What Jesus says that apart from him, apart from him, he says, "Well, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one, count it, no one comes to the father except through me." if you're trying to go on a wide road that's really easy.
· Um, I'll just do my thing. Me and Jesus, we're homeboys. I hang out with him like once or twice a year. Otherwise, I have nothing to do with him. It's It is a little humorous, but also very sobering. You have been warned.
· All right. Could I just say that as lovingly as possible? You have been warned. Christ is the only way to the narrow way that leads to life. And we have a wonderful celebration of those who have entered the narrow gate. And as we celebrate baptism, I want to invite um Alana Vasquez, Erica Wide, Isaiah Fry, and Carlos Fieros uh down here. Amen.
· And if the worship team will come on down to be ready to close us in our last song of worship.
· All right, we're going to have ladies first. Alana, you want to go first?
· She's like, "No, no." Erica, you want to go first? She's like, "I don't know." All right, we're going to Ro Shambo. No, I'm just kidding. All right. Um Erica. Yeah. If you want to get in facing this way with your feet over here. Everyone, this is Erica. Everyone say hi Erica.
· Hi Erica. Um this is Erica Wide.
· And um she just came to Christ a few weeks ago.
· Yeah, that's what's up.
· Her and Joe have been coming to church.
· Joe started coming first and it took a little bit of time for Erica to come and uh Erica came and God has just been working on Erica. So it's not about it's not about what do we do? We plant and water but God gives the growth and he just gave the growth and God has been working had been and still is working on Erica for a while and she wanted to meet with uh Becky and I and just talk about salvation.
· We went through the whole gospel and she prayed a wonderful prayer committing her life to Christ and and we just prayed after her and it was a joyous time and uh now we're ready to baptize her. She is following the Lord Lord's command to be baptized. So Erica is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior. Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life?
· Yes.
· Well, upon your profession of faith, it is my honor and privilege to baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life.
· Can you get it?
· All right. You ready, Alana?
· All right. You can you can hop in right here if you'd like. Facing there that way.
· This is Alana. Everyone say hi Alana.
· Hi.
· Hi Alana. Um, if you want to put your feet out here. There you go. Um, Alana also got saved recently a couple weeks ago. Uh, right in the Bible study room over there with Becky and I. Um, she God has been working on her too. And she came in, she said, "DJ, I want to talk about getting baptized." Said, "Okay."
· We set a time. We'll meet. And Becky and I met with her and I said, "Why do you want to be baptized?" And with tears flowing, she said, "I just want to be free from my sin."
· And that was a great open door for me cuz I said, "Does baptism save you?" And she, "No, no, it doesn't. Who saves you?" Jesus Christ does.
· And we are baptized in obedience to him, but Christ saves you. So, we walked through the gospel and she prayed to receive Christ as well and now we get to baptize her. Alana, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior?
· Yes.
· Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day, showing his power over sin and death, and that he has authority over your life? Well, upon your profession of faith, it's my honor and privilege to baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life. A towel on to the guys. Carlos, you ready?
· Yes, sir.
· All right, everyone. This is Carlos.
· Everyone say hi, Carlos. Hi, Carlos. Hey, you want to sit down? This is um Carlos Fieros.
· Yeah, I can say it right. I've been working on that. Um and uh we we got to meet and talk too about his walk with the Lord and um came to Christ um as well and just God has been again same story on repeat. God was working on you. You showed up at the church how long been coming here? Maybe like two months. and and God has impressed upon your heart your need for him as your savior and your need to get baptized.
· And so we met and talked and here we are.
· Carlos, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior?
· Yes.
· Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life?
· Yes.
· Well, upon your profession of faith, my brother, it is my honor and privilege to baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life.
· There you go.
· And we have Isaiah. What's up, Isaiah?
· Yeah, you can you can find Isaiah most the time in the back helping us run tech and run lyrics and stuff like that. Um, I give everyone an opportunity to share, but not everyone wants to talk in front of people, but Isaiah does. Um, so here, how about we just do this? How would I put this?
· You could just talk right into it like that.
· All right. Hello, I'm Isaiah. Um, God's led Good morning. God's led me to this this church and I can say that he's transformed my life in this past year amazing and truly. Um, I can say that I grew up going to church at a young age. I grew up going to CCV.
· Um, I actually got baptized and um, I can only out here and say that I got baptized not knowing the truth, not knowing who Jesus Christ really was. Um, and that laid a conviction on me really, really hard. I can say that I was living a lukewarm faith. Um, and one verse as I spent time with God in his word was in Matthew 7:22 and 23. He said, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesied in your name?
· In your name have cast out devils and in your name done many wonderful works." And then I will profess unto them, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity." Where that struck cuz in Hebrews 9:27, it said, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."
· The fear placed in my heart. I was I didn't want to die not knowing who Jesus Christ was in my sin because faith and not with if my faith is not in Christ I'm I'm dead. I'm going to be separated from God eternally forever and I don't set upon any single person nor on me.
· Um, this past year I studied uh I got introduced to the way of the master evangelism a biblical evangelism program and I recommend every single one of you guys to to do it. It is amazing. Um, and I can just say he's been amazing and I baptized again knowing that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and then I profess it truthfully with my whole heart. Amen. Get in feet. Yep.
· And you're going to have to scoot down, bro. You're too tall, bro. You just bend your kn. There you go.
· That's good. Isaiah, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior?
· Yes, he is. Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life?
· Yes, I do.
· Well, upon your profession of faith, it is my honor and privilege to baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life. Amen. Let's stand as we sing our last song.
· All sufficient merit shine like the sun. Fortune I inherit it. By no work I have done. righteousness I forfeit at my Savior's cross where all sufficient in Mary did what I could not in love he condescended eternal eternal now in time.
· A life without a blemish. The maker made to die.
· The law could never save us. Alllessness had one until the pure and Where have I finally come?
· Heat. Heat.
· I lay down my garments and empty foes. Good works now all corrupted by the sinful host. Dress in my Lord Jesus.
· Praise God.
· Heat. Heat.
· Yeah.
· Heat.
· Yeah.
· Heat.
· Home sufficient Mary firm in life and death. The joy of my salvation shall be my final breath. And when I stand accept it for a throne of God, I'll gaze upon my Jesus. Take him for the cross.
· Yes.
· Heat.
· Heat. Heat. Heat.
· Yeah.
· Heat.
· Yeah.
· Heat.
· Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Lord heavenly father, we just take time to say you are worthy of it all, Lord Jesus. And we can just say here. Go ahead and raise your hands. Lord, heavenly father, we just praise your name. We thank you for your sacrifice.
· We thank you as a father. You sent your only begotten son, Lord God, to pay the debt that we couldn't pay. The weight was too much. It was far too great a burden for us, Lord God. So you sent the one and only who could do it, Lord Jesus. And we thank you for it. It's in your precious, holy name we give you all the praise, honor, and glory. Let us go remembering this Jesus's name. Amen. Be blessed as you go.
· I accept.
· I know.
Part of Series
Winning
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· Cross Church, Phoenix. How are you?
· Good morning. Welcome in. Happy Resurrection Sunday.
· Amen. He is risen. And he is risen indeed. Amen. Christ has triumphed over email. Uh over email. Uh Christ has triumphed over evil. It was finished upon that cross.
· Good morning and happy resurrection Sunday. I'm Pastor DJ. I'm the pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix. So, if you're new here, welcome. Um it is a joyous time and uh I just I love to see what God is doing. And so, um I just man, it is amazing to not only reflect on what he has done, but to see what he is actively doing in the lives of his people as we celebrate. We have four baptisms this service. We had one at 9:00 a.m. We have four more today. So, uh praise God.
· At this time, I invite you to open your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3. And if you need a Bible, there should be one in the seat back in front of you. And if you don't have a Bible, that is your Bible, then you can keep it. That is our gift to you. You can mark it, you can highlight it, you can make notes, whatever you want. It's your Bible.
· We'll gladly replace it. And I think I'm actually at the point where I need to order more. Anyway, I also want to extend uh as Brian said, my personal thanks and gratitude to everyone involved in putting on our sunrise service and breakfast. It was wonderful. Praise the Lord. And you know who you are, but thank you for putting that on. The book of Philippians is known as the epistle or the letter of joy.
· Paul is writing Philippians. He's writing to the church at Philippi from prison. And it is known as the epistle of joy because it's so joyful. And it is, but it's also very confrontational. And that can be the hard part because he will say some difficult things in our text this morning. Aside from the Bible, one of the books I personally believe should be mandatory reading for every Christian is Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunan.
· Bunan wrote Pilgrim's Progress while in prison himself for preaching the gospel and it was published in 1678. It's an almost 400year-old book and it's amazing and it's actually never alongside the Bible. It has never been out of print.
· Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of the Christian life. It tells the story of Christian, who's the main character, uh how he gets saved and how he continues to live the Christian life as he navigates the temptations and the trials of life. I highly recommend reading it. But for our purposes this morning, I want to share with you the beginning of the story.
· It begins with Christian, that's his name. It begins with Christian who lives in the city of destruction. He lives in the city of destruction. And because this is an allegory, as an allegory, everything is representative. So the city of destruction represents the world. The world. While living in the city of destruction, Christian begins reading a book. It's representative of the Bible. And he becomes aware of a heavy burden he is bearing.
· His burden is his sin and his burden grows on his back and it becomes heavier and heavier and bigger and bigger. You can watch movie adaptations of this or interpretations of it if you want. But this burden of sin is permanently attached to him. It's almost pictured like a backpack that is fixed to you. You can't get rid of it.
· Christian, no matter what he does, he can't get rid of it himself. It is fixed to him. And he cannot, no matter how hard he tries, break free of it. And it grows and it gets heavier and it weighs him down more and more and is breaking him.
· While Christian is in the city of destruction pondering his burden of sin and reading his book, he ends up crying out, "What shall I do to be saved?"
· He wants out of the city of destruction. He wants freedom from his burden but doesn't know where to go or how to do it until he meets a man named Evangelist.
· He meets a man named Evangelist who comes and asks him why are you crying?
· Why are you crying?
· Christian explains his burden of sin and his fear of being destroyed in the city of destruction and that he doesn't know what to do.
· And so what evangelist does is he gives him what Bunan describes, remember this is the 1600s, a parchment roll. Now some people think it's representative of the Bible or it could be a tract, you know, like a gospel tract. Either way, it's truth. He gives them a parchment roll that reads, "Flee the wrath to come."
· That's what it says. "Flee the wrath to come." And what he does is he points Christian to the wicked gate. He says, "Do you see the wicked gate over yonder?" And Christian's like, "I can't quite see it." He says, "You see the bright light shining?" He says, "Yes, I see the light." in and evangelist says flee the city of destruction and run to the wicked gate.
· Now the wicked gate is a small gate that represents Christ being the narrow way that leads to eternal life and John Bunan's term for eternal life is the celestial city. So the story is about Christian's pilgrimage, leaving the city of destruction and journeying on the narrow path that leads to the celestial city.
· I say all of that to say this. One of the great things Bunan does is show the difference between those who are headed for the celestial city and those in the city of destruction. There is a difference. Those who are heading for destruction are one way and those heading for the celestial city are another way and there's a difference. That's what Paul's saying here in Philippians chapter 3.
· This is the message of Paul from God in Philippians chapter 3.
· if you have a handout this morning. If you don't, we have little uh handouts that have the outline of the sermon, some fill-in- thelanks, some notes if you would like. And if you don't, that's okay. But in my attempt to be creative, which usually doesn't go very well, um but you'll see the two main heading sections. How to know if you're headed to the celestial city and then how to know if you're still in the city of destruction.
· Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the shed blood of Jesus Christ who washes away our sin and bids us come to him for life because we don't have it on our own. God, I pray that you would give us ears to hear what the spirit would say to the church at Cross Church Phoenix, this congregation this morning in Jesus name.
· Amen. I'm going to ask you if you're able to stand with me as we read Philippians 3 10-21. I know the outline might say 12. We're going to actually start in verse 10. And if you can't stand with us or that's diff that's fine. Stand with us in spirit. But Paul says in Philippians 3 backing in verse up to verse 10 in in the CSB.
· The translations some some are different here. Um but I am reading from the CSB.
· He says this. My goal is to know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. Not that I have already reached the goal or imperfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I have all I have also been taken hold of by Christ by Christ Jesus.
· Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
· Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.
· For I have often told you, and now say again with tears that many, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
· Their end is destruction. Their god is their stomach. Their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly wait for a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself. Amen. And you can be seated.
· In verse 12, Paul says, "Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it." What's the it?
· The it is the goal, right?
· He's saying he hasn't reached the goal, but he makes every effort to because here's why he makes every effort to reach that goal. Because he's been taken hold of by Christ.
· So the question is then what goal is he talking about? What is this goal or what is this thing that he is pursuing striving toward?
· And verse 10 is the answer. As a Christian, as a believer in Jesus, Paul's goal is to know him and to know the power of his resurrection and to know the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. That's the goal.
· verse 12-4 are describing Paul's pursuit of those goals. Okay. So he uses words like make every effort uh forgetting what lies behind and reaching or straining forward toward straining striving toward what's ahead. Uh he says pursuing the goal uses words like pressing on toward the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus. What is he saying?
· He is describing his passionate pursuit of knowing Christ more, knowing the power of his resurrection more, and knowing the fellowship of his sufferings more.
· And in verse 15, Paul says, what mature Christians think this way? Think what way? They share the goal of knowing Christ more, knowing the power of his resurrection more, knowing the fellowship of his sufferings more. And then he even says, um, if you think differently, okay, God will reveal this also to you, right? In time, he will reveal this to you. Maybe someone's not mature in their walk yet, and he's saying, God will show this to you. In any case, live up to, he says, the truth you've attained. What does that mean?
· He's saying live what you do know to be truth and God in his time will reveal more to you is what he's saying. Then he says in verse 17 which is the exhortation. Verse 17 contains the two commands of the passage or the two imperatives of the passage. Join in imitating me is a command. He's telling the Philippians, "Imitate me.
· This mindset that I have, this drive that I have in pursuit of the goal of knowing Christ more." And when he says, "And pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. Pay careful attention is a command." He's saying not only to join in imitating him, but follow the example of anyone who shares that goal.
· Paul is saying Philippian believers live like me not in a proud self-righteous sense but he's saying my goal my focus my aim is to pursue what he said in verse 10 and he's saying follow that and here's the kicker if you look down at verse 20 and we'll address 18 and 19 the hard part of the chapter Look down at verse 20. What does he say?
· For our citizenship is in heaven. Our citizenship, the ones whose goal is to know Christ and know his resurrection and know his sufferings, those ones are citizens of heaven. They're the ones who eagerly wait for their savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And verse 21 is what we look forward to him doing. We want to know Christ more.
· And then we look forward to what he's going to do in and through us, transforming our humble bodies into the likeness of his glorious body by his power. The same power that he has to subject everything under himself is the same power that will change you into glory.
· So our first main heading is this. How to know if you're headed to the celestial city. Or if you want to use Paul's words, how to know if you're a citizen of heaven. The first way to know is this. Your goal is to know Christ more.
· Is your goal to know Christ more?
· Do you long to know Christ more today than yesterday?
· Do you hunger and thirst to get to know your savior more? to study his word and to see Christ more vividly, more clearly, and grow in your love for him. That's characteristic of one who's headed to the celestial city or one whose citizenship is in heaven. That's what Paul is communicating because the fact of the matter is some Christians know more statistics of their favorite sports teams than they do about Christ.
· Right now, there's nothing wrong with knowing sports stats in of in and of themselves, but do you pursue knowledge of that, just as an example, more than Christ?
· Knowing Christ is more important than sports, politics, movies, social media, whatever you're into, consider it nothing compared to knowing Jesus Christ. In the full context of the passage, if you were to read the whole chapter, you would come across verse seven, which Paul says, I consider everything. Not some things, everything loss compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ.
· He's saying that knowing Christ is of such great value, he's placing such great weight on it that everything else pales in comparison to that everything is loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. Do you long to know more of Christ in that way?
· If so, that's ed that's evidence your citizenship is in heaven. Point number two, surprise surprise, it's just the passage, right? Our second point is your goal is to know the power of his resurrection.
· Now, you say, how do we grow in our knowledge of the power of his resurrection?
· This is a desire married up with knowing Christ. He says,"I want to know Christ more. I want to know him more. And then also, I want to know the power of his resurrection." Meaning, I want to know how to live for him more. That's what he's saying.
· This is a desire to not only just know Christ, but to know how to live for him better. That's knowing the power of his resurrection. knowing how to live for him better as a result of knowing him.
· How can I better live the new life I have in Christ because of his resurrection led by the Holy Spirit? How can I walk how Christ wants me to walk?
· In Colossians chapter 1, Paul writes in verse 9, "We haven't stopped praying for you." And here's the contents of those prayers. He says, "We are asking that you, church at Colasse, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding so that that's a purpose statement.
· I want you to be filled with the knowledge of Christ and his will so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might. In Romans 8, Paul says that the spirit, get this, the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you.
· Do you understand that? The same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same one who lives in you. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, he indwells you and leads you and guides you in righteousness. The same one.
· The same one.
· This is not spirit 2.0. This is not B team Holy Spirit. It's the same one.
· Do we have a hunger and thirst for righteousness?
· You know, after Paul says that in Romans 8, the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you. He says, "Therefore, we don't live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." This is a call to live differently because you know Christ. Do you have a longing to pursue and live a holy life by the power of the Holy Spirit? If so, if so, it's evidence you're a citizen of heaven.
· Third, surprise, surprise, your goal is to know the fellowship of his sufferings.
· Now, this is the part we kind of want to skip, right?
· Yeah, I want to know Christ and I want to know how to live him for a fellowship of his sufferings. I don't know about that, right?
· You may want to know Christ more. You may want to know the power of his resurrection more. Can you say you want to know the fellowship of his sufferings?
· Living a holy life, loving Christ, being saturated by scripture and living by its truths will come with opposition from this hostile world.
· Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3. This is the last letter um that we have from Paul. This is before his martyrdom. He's going to be beheaded shortly thereafter. After he writes this letter, he's going to be killed for the sake of Christ in the gospel. And what does he tell Timothy? Indeed. Right? We say on Easter, he is risen. He is risen indeed. Paul says indeed. All, count it, all not some.
· All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. It doesn't say might be. Um it doesn't say could be. It says will be because the Bible is countercultural to our world. And if we proclaim it and live by it, we will be hated. You say hated is a strong word, DJ. It's the words of Jesus. What did he tell his disciples?
· If the world hates you, know this. It has hated me first. There is no disciple of Christ who's been hated before Christ. Christ was hated first before any disciple of his ever was.
· This isn't to say Christians go looking for suffering or looking for persecution. But when it comes, can you count it a joy to know his sufferings?
· If you live a godly life in Christ, no matter what the world throws at you, it's evidence you're a citizen of heaven. Or if we want to use our Pilgrim's Progress analogy, you're on the road to the celestial city. Here comes the hard part. As I studied this passage, I was like, "Yep, this one's going to be hard." It's not your typical Easter message. There is another group of people in this text.
· There's a different kind of people Paul introduces in verse 18 and 19. And they are those who live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Enemies of the cross of Christ.
· Notice the change from Paul uh for you English folks from the first person to the third person. But for um for people like me who was like what? Um I had to figure that one out. Um talking Paul talking about the eyes's and the uses's and the we and switching then to the they and the theirs.
· Let me give you a couple examples. You know we see in verse 12 right not that I have already reached the goal or 13 I don't consider myself to have taken hold of it. One thing I do uh verse 14 I pursue this goal. Therefore, verse 15, let all of us think this way. Um, in any case, verse 16, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.
· Join in imitating me. Pay careful attention to those living to the example according to the example you have in us.
· And then if you jump down to verse 20, the great contrast, but our citizenship is in heaven. But if you look at verse 18, he says, I have often told you and now say again with tears that many, not not a little, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. And he instantly goes to there and his destruction. There God is their stomach. There glory is their shame. They are focused on earthly things. But our see the contrast. But our citizenship is in heaven.
· And we look eagerly wait for a savior Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body. The first thing Paul says is their end is destruction. Verse 19, their end is destruction.
· Who's that? Those who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ, their end is destruction. And so that's our second main heading. If you again, if you have a handout or a notetaker, how to know if you're still in the city of destruction. And again, this is where I don't get creative. I'm just going to use the Bible passages. The first way to know is your God is your stomach.
· What does that mean? What does it mean to have your stomach be your God?
· What that means is living to fulfill your sinful appetites. That's what that means. To be focused on pleasing yourself as your own God. The word here for stomach is a broader Bible way of saying it's a broader reference to say sensual indulges in general meaning you live to please you because you're your own god do you to put it in modern terms to have your god be your stomach is what you do you
· very Gary in Greek uh the same word translated stomach here is translated as heart uh in John 7:38 where Jesus says whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
· Jesus is saying if you believe in him out of your innermost being, from the very essence of who you are, rivers of living water will flow. He's not saying that your actual heart that's beating in your chest will explode with water cuz you die, right? You wouldn't be here if that were the case. He's talking about your innermost being. And Paul uses the same word here for stomach, being your innermost being.
· He's saying that to walk as an enemy of the cross of Christ is to have your heart set on you being your own God instead of Christ. Instead of living to please God, you live to please yourself. Maybe you live um for more money, more sex, more pornography, more influence on social media, more of whatever it takes to fulfill your lustful desires, you live for that.
· That means your God is your stomach. If you live for those things and not Christ, Paul's saying that's evidence that your end is destruction. Living in that way is opposition to the cross of Christ because Christ died to save you from those things. If you live for those things, obviously you have not had an encounter with the cross of Christ is what he's saying.
· My wife made me a shirt one time from a quote from one of my preachers and it said this. It says, "We should not be entertained by the sins for which Christ died."
· Interesting. And I love that because it helps you re-evaluate what you watch right on TV. We should not be entertained by the sins for which Christ died. Are you entertained by lust? Are you entertained by sex outside of marriage? Are you entertained by filthy talk? Things like that?
· Are you entertained by sin?
· If you live for those things, Paul says your end is destruction. It is saying you're still in the city of destruction. Number two, our second way. Surprise, surprise, your glory is your shame. Your glory is your shame. At a fundamental level, this means living to show off things for which you ought to be ashamed. It means enjoying and celebrating what God opposes. It's being for what God is against. It's being pro- sin. That's what that means.
· It means glorying in sin. Maybe it's sexual sin, any kind of sin. It means having pride. Pride in what God says is an abomination in sin. We live not only in a world that celebrates sin, but also in a time when some churches celebrate sin. The whole month of June is dedicated to what? Gay pride month.
· Think through what does God say in Romans 1? It is sin and gay pride month is glorying in what God says ought to be shame and calls it, Paul calls it men committing shameful acts with men and women committing shameful acts with women. And what is he talking about? Let's get real. It's not cultural. It's biblical.
· It is an example of glorying in what God says is sin. And people can glory in their shame in other ways. For example, um men celebrating how many women they've been with. Uh people celebrating how drunk or high they can get. Being proud of stealing, robbing, cheating, murdering. All of it is glorying in shame. And according to God's word, it's evidence your end is destruction.
· Third, finally, the last way to know you're still in the city of destruction is your focus is on earthly things. Your focus is on earthly things. As one person, as one pastor put it, these are people who prefer their Xbox and social media over God in his word. I like that. That was good. Not that you can't play video games or be on Facebook, but it means that your focus, if that's your focus, if that consumes you, you're wrong.
· Instead of your God being yourself, your stomach, this is saying your god is whatever else in the world you worship other than Christ. That's what this is saying. The same pastor uh Tony Merida who said the thing about the Xbox also said this quote don't think you will become like Jesus by watching reality TV or listening to talk radio constantly.
· I like that. Thought that was good. Not that you can't uh watch TV or listen to talk radio. What he's saying is don't expect to become more like Christ if that's all you do all day every day. While the Bible collects dust on the shelf, you're up to date on the latest reality TV show. Your focus then is on earthly things. That's what is being communicated here.
· What Paul is basically getting at is living for earthly things. Getting caught up in earthly things and letting earthly things consume you is not characteristic of a citizen of heaven.
· Is that you?
· Are you focused on the things of this world?
· Are you captured by the things of this earth rather than being captured by Christ? Remember he said, "I have been taken hold of Christ, so I pursue Christ." Are you here? And have you been taken hold of by the world? And so you pursue more of the world. What you've been taken hold of, you'll pursue.
· Have you been taken hold of Christ?
· If so, if you if you've been taken hold of and pursue the world and focus on earthly things, Paul is saying that is evidence that your end is destruction. The bottom line is this.
· Are you headed for the celestial city or are you still in the city of destruction?
· That's the question this morning.
· Or if we want to use Paul's words, okay, are you a citizen of heaven or is your end destruction?
· That's what he's communicating.
· There's only two options. There's not a third option. You can't be like, "Yeah, Pastor DJ, I would like door number three." Um, you know, or some people say, "Well, I'm on the fence." You don't want to be on the fence. Could I tell you two things? Number one, there is no fence. There is God and Christ and there is Satan, death, sin, and hell. Um, there is no fence. But if you want to say for the sake of argument, there is a fence. Satan owns the fence.
· If you must have the fence, fine. Satan owns the fence. Do you want to be on it?
· No.
· There is no fence. There's no third option. A citizen of heaven end is destruction. There's not like an in between. Well, his end is half destruction, half citizen of heaven. We'll kind of give him a 50%. He'll be like half miserable for eternity, half happy for eternity, and we'll call it good. That doesn't exist. That's not It's Christ in heaven forever in the glory of God, eternal separation from God in hell. Those are the options.
· And if you're here and you're a Christian, this is an exhortation. the commands to imitate Paul be an example of what following Christ should look like. Would you want someone following Christ the way you do is a good question to reflect on. Not that you're perfect, Paul says. Not that I I haven't achieved perfection, but one thing I do is I pursue these things.
· We should be too. If you call Christ your personal Lord and Savior, that should be you should be taken hold of by that and pursue that then and pursue knowledge of Christ and live as an example. If you're here and God is calling you out from the city of destruction, respond today.
· Don't delay. If you're being called out from the city of destruction and into the celestial city or if you're being called out from your end being destruction to be a citizen of heaven, don't delay. Come to Christ now.
· Resurrection Sunday. Every day is a good day to come to Christ. But why not today?
· The Bible says today is the day of salvation. You don't know what tomorrow will bring. Of course not.
· If that's you, please come find me. And I plead with you with as much as I could plead, so to speak. If I can just plead with you to flee the city of destruction like evangelist told Christian, "Run to Christ and come to him for forgiveness of sin." When he tells Christian to run to the wicked gate and knock on it, he says, "Go knock." And when Christian arrives, he's knocking incessantly knocking. And that's the picture here.
· Seek him. Come in. And the door is open to Christian.
· That's the picture.
· I'll leave you with the words of Jesus Christ himself. Matthew 7:3. You say, "DJ, this sounds a little harsh." Well, wait till you hear Jesus. Okay. Jesus says, "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many, many people are on the wide road to destruction."
· But Matthew 7:14, Jesus says, "For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few." What is he saying? There's more people on the road to destruction than there are on the road to life is what he's saying. Don't be one of them on the wide road that leads to destruction. Don't be it.
· You've been warned. If Easter is the only time you come to church, God is telling you this. This is not Pastor DJ's opinion or life story that I'm giving you. I'm telling you what God says about your state. What Jesus says that apart from him, apart from him, he says, "Well, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one, count it, no one comes to the father except through me." if you're trying to go on a wide road that's really easy.
· Um, I'll just do my thing. Me and Jesus, we're homeboys. I hang out with him like once or twice a year. Otherwise, I have nothing to do with him. It's It is a little humorous, but also very sobering. You have been warned.
· All right. Could I just say that as lovingly as possible? You have been warned. Christ is the only way to the narrow way that leads to life. And we have a wonderful celebration of those who have entered the narrow gate. And as we celebrate baptism, I want to invite um Alana Vasquez, Erica Wide, Isaiah Fry, and Carlos Fieros uh down here. Amen.
· And if the worship team will come on down to be ready to close us in our last song of worship.
· All right, we're going to have ladies first. Alana, you want to go first?
· She's like, "No, no." Erica, you want to go first? She's like, "I don't know." All right, we're going to Ro Shambo. No, I'm just kidding. All right. Um Erica. Yeah. If you want to get in facing this way with your feet over here. Everyone, this is Erica. Everyone say hi Erica.
· Hi Erica. Um this is Erica Wide.
· And um she just came to Christ a few weeks ago.
· Yeah, that's what's up.
· Her and Joe have been coming to church.
· Joe started coming first and it took a little bit of time for Erica to come and uh Erica came and God has just been working on Erica. So it's not about it's not about what do we do? We plant and water but God gives the growth and he just gave the growth and God has been working had been and still is working on Erica for a while and she wanted to meet with uh Becky and I and just talk about salvation.
· We went through the whole gospel and she prayed a wonderful prayer committing her life to Christ and and we just prayed after her and it was a joyous time and uh now we're ready to baptize her. She is following the Lord Lord's command to be baptized. So Erica is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior. Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life?
· Yes.
· Well, upon your profession of faith, it is my honor and privilege to baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life.
· Can you get it?
· All right. You ready, Alana?
· All right. You can you can hop in right here if you'd like. Facing there that way.
· This is Alana. Everyone say hi Alana.
· Hi.
· Hi Alana. Um, if you want to put your feet out here. There you go. Um, Alana also got saved recently a couple weeks ago. Uh, right in the Bible study room over there with Becky and I. Um, she God has been working on her too. And she came in, she said, "DJ, I want to talk about getting baptized." Said, "Okay."
· We set a time. We'll meet. And Becky and I met with her and I said, "Why do you want to be baptized?" And with tears flowing, she said, "I just want to be free from my sin."
· And that was a great open door for me cuz I said, "Does baptism save you?" And she, "No, no, it doesn't. Who saves you?" Jesus Christ does.
· And we are baptized in obedience to him, but Christ saves you. So, we walked through the gospel and she prayed to receive Christ as well and now we get to baptize her. Alana, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior?
· Yes.
· Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day, showing his power over sin and death, and that he has authority over your life? Well, upon your profession of faith, it's my honor and privilege to baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life. A towel on to the guys. Carlos, you ready?
· Yes, sir.
· All right, everyone. This is Carlos.
· Everyone say hi, Carlos. Hi, Carlos. Hey, you want to sit down? This is um Carlos Fieros.
· Yeah, I can say it right. I've been working on that. Um and uh we we got to meet and talk too about his walk with the Lord and um came to Christ um as well and just God has been again same story on repeat. God was working on you. You showed up at the church how long been coming here? Maybe like two months. and and God has impressed upon your heart your need for him as your savior and your need to get baptized.
· And so we met and talked and here we are.
· Carlos, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior?
· Yes.
· Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life?
· Yes.
· Well, upon your profession of faith, my brother, it is my honor and privilege to baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life.
· There you go.
· And we have Isaiah. What's up, Isaiah?
· Yeah, you can you can find Isaiah most the time in the back helping us run tech and run lyrics and stuff like that. Um, I give everyone an opportunity to share, but not everyone wants to talk in front of people, but Isaiah does. Um, so here, how about we just do this? How would I put this?
· You could just talk right into it like that.
· All right. Hello, I'm Isaiah. Um, God's led Good morning. God's led me to this this church and I can say that he's transformed my life in this past year amazing and truly. Um, I can say that I grew up going to church at a young age. I grew up going to CCV.
· Um, I actually got baptized and um, I can only out here and say that I got baptized not knowing the truth, not knowing who Jesus Christ really was. Um, and that laid a conviction on me really, really hard. I can say that I was living a lukewarm faith. Um, and one verse as I spent time with God in his word was in Matthew 7:22 and 23. He said, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesied in your name?
· In your name have cast out devils and in your name done many wonderful works." And then I will profess unto them, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity." Where that struck cuz in Hebrews 9:27, it said, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."
· The fear placed in my heart. I was I didn't want to die not knowing who Jesus Christ was in my sin because faith and not with if my faith is not in Christ I'm I'm dead. I'm going to be separated from God eternally forever and I don't set upon any single person nor on me.
· Um, this past year I studied uh I got introduced to the way of the master evangelism a biblical evangelism program and I recommend every single one of you guys to to do it. It is amazing. Um, and I can just say he's been amazing and I baptized again knowing that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and then I profess it truthfully with my whole heart. Amen. Get in feet. Yep.
· And you're going to have to scoot down, bro. You're too tall, bro. You just bend your kn. There you go.
· That's good. Isaiah, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior?
· Yes, he is. Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life?
· Yes, I do.
· Well, upon your profession of faith, it is my honor and privilege to baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life. Amen. Let's stand as we sing our last song.
· All sufficient merit shine like the sun. Fortune I inherit it. By no work I have done. righteousness I forfeit at my Savior's cross where all sufficient in Mary did what I could not in love he condescended eternal eternal now in time.
· A life without a blemish. The maker made to die.
· The law could never save us. Alllessness had one until the pure and Where have I finally come?
· Heat. Heat.
· I lay down my garments and empty foes. Good works now all corrupted by the sinful host. Dress in my Lord Jesus.
· Praise God.
· Heat. Heat.
· Yeah.
· Heat.
· Yeah.
· Heat.
· Home sufficient Mary firm in life and death. The joy of my salvation shall be my final breath. And when I stand accept it for a throne of God, I'll gaze upon my Jesus. Take him for the cross.
· Yes.
· Heat.
· Heat. Heat. Heat.
· Yeah.
· Heat.
· Yeah.
· Heat.
· Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Lord heavenly father, we just take time to say you are worthy of it all, Lord Jesus. And we can just say here. Go ahead and raise your hands. Lord, heavenly father, we just praise your name. We thank you for your sacrifice.
· We thank you as a father. You sent your only begotten son, Lord God, to pay the debt that we couldn't pay. The weight was too much. It was far too great a burden for us, Lord God. So you sent the one and only who could do it, Lord Jesus. And we thank you for it. It's in your precious, holy name we give you all the praise, honor, and glory. Let us go remembering this Jesus's name. Amen. Be blessed as you go.
· I accept.
· I know.
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