666 Life Worthy of the Gospel Part 3 - Philippians 1:27

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One Podcast. Today, we're continuing our study of Philippians 1 27 and 28. And I want to read that today from the English Standard Version.

"Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 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."

Again, that's Philippians 1 27 and 28 from the English Standard Version. We've been talking about a life worthy of the gospel. And we've talked about that in the previous two episodes. Today, we're talking about the second characteristic of a life worthy of the gospel that we are with one mind striving side by side, for the faith of the gospel. It's translated slightly differently in the other translations that I've used; the Christian Standard two days ago and the New American Standard yesterday.

Striving side-by-side for the faith of the gospel, I think is part of this example that Paul's making. When we live worthy of the gospel of Christ, we are locked in on the Holy Spirit. We do what God tells us to do. We're listening to him and obeying what we know and doing the things that he's called us to do.

And with one mind striving side by side, for the faith of the gospel, we live that way together. One of the challenges that I see in the world today, especially and our new kind of social media world is that it's easy for us to criticize other people. And many of us criticize other Christians.

People may be critical of my own teaching about the scripture here. I don't consider myself a teacher. I'm a challenger. I want to challenge us to live our faith. I want to challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit what he would have you do.

"One mind striving side-by-side for the faith of the gospel," doesn't necessarily mean that we all do the same things or that we all have the same beliefs. We don't all vote for the same candidates. We don't all show up on the same side of every single issue. I don't believe it's that way at all. "One mind striving side-by-side for the faith of the gospel," means that I give grace to the people around me.

Jesus called me to be a server of other people. That's what ministry is. I need to be a servant. When I see another believer and they do things slightly differently than me, I need to give them grace. I need to serve them and help them and assist them. I want to lay down my life for one another, for other people, I need to figure out ways to follow the holy spirit and be a blessing to the people around me.

Whether I necessarily agree with them or not. We're called to serve other people, whether they follow Jesus or they don't. And so "With one mind striving side-by-side for the faith of the gospel," to me means that I'm taking my orders from the Holy Spirit and I'm doing my best to serve everyone that I know.

In Mark 10:45, Jesus said, "the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve." That's part of that verse, but I believe that's the universal part of it. Jesus came to serve. Our job is to serve. Today, if you're doing that, I'm grateful for you. I'm thankful that God has called you to follow him and to serve other people.

Daily activity number four is that we would serve others. Today. I want to challenge you ask the Holy Spirit where he would have you serve others, and I believe that will make you be part of this answer, "striving side by side, for the faith of the gospel." We give away our faith, by the way we live.

Thank you for being a follower of Jesus. Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for asking God, how he would have you make a difference in the world today because you follow him. Thanks very much.