Audio Resources

This isn't really a sermon exactly. It's more of a talk. But we are going to look at a lot of Scriptures to get an overview of what the Bible has to say about why it is important in order to encourage and motivate us about the significance of reading, studying, and listening to the Bible. Important Passages: These are some of the Scriptures we will be looking at throughout this message. • Jeremiah 10:12; Romans 11:36; Psalm 24;1 • Acts 17:24,25; 1 Timothy 1:17; Genesis 1,2,3; Hebrews 1:1-2 • Psalm 29; Psalm 147:18; Isaiah 55:10-11; 2 Corinthians 4:6 • Galatians 1:8; Exodus 33:19 • Exodus 4:14-16; Jeremiah 1:6-9; Jeremiah 29:4; Jeremiah 36; John 14:9; John 12:49,50; John 17:8-20;Luke 10:16; John 16:12-15

I want to encourage and challenge and excite you about the mission God’s given us as a church by helping you understand God’s plan for Israel.

A sermon is much more than an outline, but perhaps this outline will help you follow the sermon. Big picture there are going to be two parts to this message: 1. A warning about the danger of false religion and deceiving yourself (1-24) 2. An explanation of the nature of true discipleship (25-35) But I really want you to hear this message as a direct challenge to consider your relationship with Jesus. ● Are you fanatically, devoted and committed to Jesus above everything else? ● You need to think about that because He was hated and crucified. ● And if you are pretending to be his follower without being willing to actually follow Him, then what good is your religious activity?

It’s been twenty five years, Cornerstone! So we are going to take a minute and think about the past, the present and the future. 1. What are we thankful for? 2. What are we asking God for? 3. Why are we confident? I want us look at Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church so that we will have a better understanding of the significance of the church in God’s plan, what is most exciting about what God’s doing in and through the church, what should be important to us as a church, and what we need most right now as a church.

Part of the Christians life is coming to terms with this fact--Being in Christ in NOT too good to be true. We are given so many things in Christ, for salvation and for sanctification, and yet we seem to go back to our old ways too often. We don't rely on all the good things we're given in Christ. We fall into sin, or we become legalistic in trying to gain God's favor or grow in Christlikeness, without relying on Christ. So what's the solution? The solution is to keep looking at Christ, and continue to be overwhelmed by what we gain with Him! Paul explains 3 things we gain when we know Christ: Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification. And these three things deal with the past, present, and future of the Christian life: it's all of life! Because all of life is supposed to be in Christ! And that's the goal of Philippians: live all of life for Christ and the gospel!

We are so prone to boast in ourselves. We've been learning about this so much on Sundays, and I know it's been getting deep into our hearts. Paul believes this matters too, and goes down this road because other so-called 'spiritual leaders' refuse to humble themselves before God. Even Paul himself knows of this in his own life. But amazingly, he uses his own struggle with humility as an illustration of the key purpose of Philippians...we need to know Christ. That means we need to get out of the way. The more we elevate our identities above others, and prove our self-worth through our accomplishments, the more difficult it is to know Christ and live for him.

In Philippians, Paul has been explaining the importance of the gospel, and the importance of humility. While talking about these 2 things, Paul has already used 2 the examples of people, who are ‘modelling’ these points. Paul himself was our first example; He was a model of living for the gospel (Phil. 1:12-26, Phil. 2:16-18). And our second example was Jesus; He is our supreme example of humility in Phil. 2:5-11. But then we reach today’s section, and we have 2 more examples: a man named Timothy and one named Epaphroditus. And here’s the question…why do we need 2 more examples when we’ve already had 2 examples? One reason is because when it comes to seeing examples, the more the merrier. There’s a kind of proverbs that says “we learn more caught then taught” (aka, we learn more deeply through examples then just getting information). If that’s the case, then more examples helps us learn this more deeply. But here’s another reason…these 2 new guys were ORDINARY models of gospel commitment and humility. Think about it…if the only examples of gospel commitment and humility we had were Paul and Jesus…would we feel confident that change was possible for us? Because following Jesus and Paul is a high standard! We feel so unlike them! They’re are like spiritual superheroes! What about us normal people?! Well, Timothy and Epaphroditus were ordinary men, who loved Christ and loved others…and it’s by their ordinary obedience that their example becomes extraordinarily helpful and encouraging.