667 Life Worthy of the Gospel Part 4 - Philippians 1:28

Hey, it's Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One Podcast. We've been talking about a life worthy of the gospel from Philippians one verses 27 and 28. Today. I want to read from the original New International Version. So from 1984, something like that.

"Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man, for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved- and that by God."

We've talked a little bit about what it means to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. That means that we "stand firm in one spirit," and we "contend as one man, for the faith of the gospel," using this translation. The word "contending" here was the word "striving" in a couple of the other translations.

Today. I want to focus on verse 28, "without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved- and that by God."

I think this translation is a little sharp in that regard. This once again is the 1984 New International Version. In the 1995, New American Standard it says. " In no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you and that too, from God."

I don't want to be alarmed by my opponents. When I run into people who disagree or whenever difficult situations occur, my initial action is to be alarmed. There are bad things happening in the world, right now. There are major problems going on. As I record this, the Ukraine has been attacked by Russia for what seems to be no apparent reason to most of us in the West. And many people are dying and suffering as a result of that. This challenge about us being not alarmed or concerned or worried or fearful of our opponents comes from this confidence that God is in control.

I confess I don't have the confidence that God is in control sometimes, when I think about, life-threatening situations, wars or accidents. I can create some pretty stiff anxiety in myself when I think about being closed in a small place. I can be alarmed by a number of things, but Paul's challenging us here to have this confidence in God.

He's in charge of everything. And when we have confidence in him, we're not alarmed by the situations that we find ourselves in. We're not agonized by those things or scared or fearful. And that becomes a sign of destruction for them because our confidence is in God. It's our salvation because he gives us the peace and the joy.

 I want to challenge us today to find the verses, look in the Bible. We can trust our God to pull us through. Maybe not even in this life.

"In no way alarm by our opponents," today for us, I think means that we relax. We trust God, our situation isn't as bad as we think. Even if we lose our jobs, even if certain things happened to us, let's turn to God and trust him and not be alarmed.

That trust and peace that we get from God is the difference maker. It's a sign of salvation for us, and it proves that people who don't have that peace don't have that God. I think that's what this whole reference to destruction means. Let's trust God today and follow him and do what he says. And he should give us peace because we won't be alarmed by our opponents. And it will be obvious to everyone else that we're connected to something bigger than what's happening to us right now.

When we conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, we look different to the world. And that's part of our job. Our job is to take life following Jesus and stick it in the world. Ministry is nothing but helping other people move one notch closer to Jesus, and that begins with us living life, following him.

Why don't you choose to follow Jesus today? Ask him how he would have you show up at work and then do what he says. Thanks very much for being a marketplace minister. If you want to be part of a community, that's also interested in helping one another live this way on a daily basis, check out our community at https://followerofone.org.

You can just go to https://followerofone.org and click on the community links to learn more. Thanks very much.