A Vision for Your Life
Vision January 4, 2026 Philippians 1:3-11 Notes
Some of us may feel like we have no vision for our life at all. We’re drifting, reacting, just trying to get through life. Others of us do have a vision, but it may be unclear, incomplete, or even in conflict with God’s purposes. We know what we want, where we’re going, and how we plan to get there. But our vision may be shaped more by ambition, fear, or trying to stay in our comfort zone, rather than following Christ.
Whether we have no vision or the wrong vision, the problem is the same: our hearts need to be aligned with God’s vision for our lives. And that’s exactly what the apostle Paul prays for in Philippians 1. From a Roman prison, he shows us how God changes the heart so that our vision becomes aligned with His purposes.
In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he expressed his joyful gratitude and pastoral affection for them and prayed that they would grow in following God’s vision for their lives. We can choose to follow God’s vision for our lives.
Audio
Good morning, church. Happy New Year. You've done well. Here you are, the first Sunday of the year and you showed up at church. You could check the box.
What about next week, though? I'll be looking for you next week. Happy New Year. You know, I usually take two Sundays off. I take the last Sunday and the first Sunday off to study.
And I did study last week and prayed and thought about our year, but I decided to come back early. And I know some of you lost a bet. You shouldn't have been betting. Anyway. Some of you told me before the service, oh, I lost a bet.
I thought Mike Laramie was going to be preaching today. Or I thought, you know, Adam was going to, you know, Adam preached last Sunday. But I'm back. I'm sorry to disappoint. Made you lose your bet, but I'm back today.
We're happy to be here today. And I get a Sunday off and I get a week to study and I get. I get a little energetic. So watch out. Get your seatbelts on.
We're going to have a good time this morning going through the word of God. I've got some things to announce that we were praying about for December. Can I do that quickly? And then we'll talk about the book of Philippians a little bit. But we were praying for a big day at Christmas that we would invite people far from God to come and hear the gospel.
And we were praying that we would have 600 in our Wilson campus and 200 in our Rocky Mount campus. And so we had 564 come to our Wilson service. And we had 15 guests, first timers, and three people among them prayed to receive Christ. And so that was. That was our Christmas big day in Wilson.
And then in Rocky mount, we had 212 show up and nine guests, and two of them prayed to receive Christ. And so that's why we do what we do. People say, well, you know, you shouldn't be big in the numbers. Well, there's a book of the Bible called Numbers. Okay, so God's big on numbers.
And because we count people, because people count and we care about people coming to Christ. And so we pray for these things and God comes through and we're thankful for it and thankful for your willingness to invite people to church. And so it's a new year and we're starting a new series today entitled A Vision for your life. Seeing your place in God's story. Seeing your place in God's story.
And you know, when we talk about vision, we're not going to get on an eye chart. So you're not getting an eye exam today. We're not talking about that kind of vision. What we're talking about is getting clarity about your purpose, about what it is you're doing. Now, I know a lot of you are probably, it's the first of the year and you've got some goals you're making, you've been making some resolutions.
I'm going to lose £15. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. But what I'm challenging us to do as we get started today is not to make resolutions, but to make a renewed commitment to be in what God wants for us this year, to find our place in his story. Because you might have a vision for your life, you might not, but God definitely does. God designed you on purpose, for a purpose, and so he has a vision for your life.
And so we're gonna be talking about that today and over the next four weeks. This week we'll talk about heart, getting a vision for becoming who you are in Christ. Next week we'll talk about home, getting a vision for your family and getting a vision for your church family, for your relationships. Three weeks from now, we'll talk about hands, getting a vision for your work that God's called you to do, the influence that you have at school and at work, in your service. And then finally, harvest.
Our fourth sermon is entitled Harvest Getting God's Vision for the World. For your participation in the mission of the world. So that's where we're at this month. We're going to take on a partial piece of Philippians each week. So today we'll take a little piece of chapter one next week, chapter two, chapter three, chapter four.
That's how we're going to carve it up, this series. Now, some of you may feel, I don't have a vision, Gary, I don't have a vision. I'm really drifting. I'm really just reacting. I'm really kind of like a first responder to my own life.
I'm constantly putting out fires in my own life. I don't really have a focus Now. I would share with those of us who are struggling like that to remember what the book of Proverbs tells us. It says, where there is no vision, the people perish. And so you're just running like a ship without a rudder.
And so I want to challenge you to really be present for these four sermons over the month of January and get, get God's vision for your life. Now, some of you might have a vision, but it might not be God's vision. It might be inspired by your own, your own desires, your own ambitions, or it might be inspired by fear of avoiding things I'm afraid of. So my goal this year is to avoid things I'm afraid of. I want to stay in my comfort zone.
I don't want to get out of my comfort zone. But may I say to you, and I should put a warning label on this series. God always calls us outside our comfort zone. He always calls us to a place that you can't do it alone, that you'll need His Holy Spirit and His power to do what he's called you to do. And so rather than having a vision that's based on avoidance of things that scare us, staying in our comfort zone, or even ambitions that we have, let's get a vision for what God desires for us.
That's how the Apostle Paul is praying for the Philippian Church in chapter one here from a Roman prison, he writes this letter and talks about his affection and his thankfulness for the church at Philippi. And I believe as we look here, we can choose to follow the vision that God sized vision that he has for our life. And as we look at the text, I think we'll see three heart priorities, heart shaped priorities for having a vision that God has for our lives. So let's look Philippians chapter one, starting at verse three. And I'm sorry, but I'm going to do my best to read this as it's written.
But I keep feeling the southern accent come through and you'll see why in just a minute. It's like Paul went southern on this letter and there's a lot of you alls in here and it's hard for me to say you all. I keep on wanting to say y' all every time I hit it. So forgive me if I leak one of those in especially for you guys that don't say y', all. But I'm gonna do my best.
Here we go. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine, for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I'm sure of this, that he who began a work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel. For God is my witness.
How I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. This is God's word. Amen. We're looking for three heart priorities for following God's vision for your life.
The first one is this. A heart that is shaped by God's gospel. A heart that is shaped by God's Gospel. You probably took note of the word gospel. It was in here twice.
Verse 5, verse 7. The word gospel. The word gospel means good news. And when the Bible talks about the gospel, when it talks about good news, it's talking about the facts of the gospel. That Jesus died for our sins.
He was buried on the third day. He was raised and ascended to the right hand of the father. And after 40 days, and so we know, we know the gospel facts, that this really happened. He died for our sins. He was buried.
He was raised. It's not enough just to know those things, but we believe them by faith. And so the gospel is the good news that what we couldn't do, that we couldn't save ourselves from our sins, we couldn't save ourselves from bondage to sin. We couldn't save ourselves from the death that approaches our all of us, it's all. We all have a date assigned unto us.
We couldn't rescue ourselves. But the gospel comes saying good news. He took our death and gave us and offers us eternal life. He took our sins upon the cross and he offers his righteousness. He took our separation from the Father and he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
He took our separation and he offers his sonship so that we can be right with the Father. This is the good news. Do we know it? That's the good news. As we start the first day of the year, do we know the good news?
And do we have a heart that's shaped by the good news? Look how Paul prays. And by the way, you'll often see, if you get a card from me of encouragement, you'll often see me sign it. Blessings, Pastor Gary. Philippians 1:3,6.
It's my favorite passage to. To pray over people. And so, by the way, a lot of us are praying emojis these days, and I'm Guilty of it, too. Like, you put a prayer request on Facebook or something like that, and you'll be like, I'm just clicking through right now. And now I see a prayer request, and I just give him one of those.
And if I really. I'm praying hard. Clink, clink. You know, like that. I really love you.
Clink, clink. Like that. And so Paul doesn't send emojis. Doesn't send emojis. He says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.
Every time I think of you, I'm thankful. Where's he at? He's in a Roman prison. And he's thinking of the church at Philippi. He's thinking of those souls that came to Christ when they heard the Gospel.
He's thankful every time he thinks of them. And always in every prayer of mine. For you, for you all. Man, I had such a hard time with y' all right there, making my prayer with joy. It brings me joy to think of you because of your.
Now here it is, partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now. That word, partnership. We know this Greek word. I've taught this one over and over again. You know it?
Koinonia. That's the word translated partnership. It could have been translated fellowship. It could have been translated communion or partnership or partaker of.
I'm thankful for you because you're partners with me. You're in the koinonia, the fellowship of the Gospel. He's talking to all the members of the church that have believed in the gospel. And they're not just passive attenders, but they're participants. The good news, that it's affected their heart and it's flowing out of their heart to others.
I'm thankful with great joy when I think of you. I'm praying for you from the first day. What's the first day? The first day they heard the Gospel and came to Christ because he was there. He planted the church in Philippi.
Paul planted that church, and so he was there. In fact, the story goes that he was over in Asia Minor, which is modern day Turkey, and he was in the area of Troas, which was ancient Troy. And he's in that area, and he's praying. He wants to go east. He thinks, I'll go east.
And then the Lord closed that door. He had a sense that the Lord did not want him to go east. And so then he has a vision of a man from Macedonia beckoning him to come. And so he goes west. And so then we see the history of Christianity goes west rather than east.
And it took place right there before he goes to Philippi. And so he gets on a boat and he tells his guys. He's got Silas with him. He's got Timothy with him. He's got some other travelers.
He's got Luke traveling with him, who wrote the Book of Acts. And so they get on a boat and they go across the Aegean Sea, and they pull up in Philippi. And so he's thinking about sharing the gospel with those people from that first day, how they've got on board with the gospel. They didn't just get a little bit of gospel. They got the whole thing.
They swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. They formed a church right there in Philippi. He's thankful every time he thinks for him, it brings him joy from that first time he saw them receive Jesus. That's what's going on right here in those first few verses. Partnership.
I wonder, are you a partner in the gospel? Are you in the fellowship of the gospel? Are you a participant in the gospel? The gospel not only saves us from sin, it reshapes us for mission. Look what it says in second Corinthians.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come.
You're a new creation. You have a new purpose, a new vision for your life. You found out the best news that there is. God loves us. He sent his Son that.
He loves us so much. He sent his Son to die for us so that those that believe in him might have eternal life. This is the good news, and it compels us and it moves us. And the gospel is not just an entry point. We often think, well, okay, I got the gospel.
Can we move on to some other stuff? No. The gospel. Listen, friends, we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day because we are a people that default. Our default is earning.
Our default is earning. We always feel like I need to earn it. And even after we come to Christ, we feel like we need to earn the right to stay in the kingdom, to stay right with God. Like, I need to check off these boxes. I need to.
And especially I said this the first service, but I'll say it to you. I was thinking about the firstborns. I don't know how many firstborns we have in the house, but if you're a firstborn and you had younger siblings, you kind of disappear there for a little bit. They start making over the little ones. But if you're a firstborn, you're always jumping back in the Front of the camera, like, hey, I'm still here.
And there's an old 8 millimeter movie. And these are silent movies, kids. The little kids don't know what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about a smartphone. I'm talking about a thing like this that had two headlights on it, right?
And so I got an old movie of my dad had just got this Sears and Roebuck movie camera. He had to wind it up and then it would run. And we're just standing there, and he goes, it's a movie camera, boys. And it was me. I'm seven or eight years old.
My brother Barry's like three or four. We're just standing there. And he goes, it's a movie camera. Do something. And so Barry's not doing anything.
So I jumped in front of him and I did a Chubby Checker, man. And Dad's like, move out of the way. I wanted to see your little brother, you know, like that, you know. Yeah, that's. But a firstborn never quits being like that.
And what you notice as you grow up. And maybe you don't have to be a firstborn. All of us can be like this. God, do you see me? Look at me.
God, do you see me? How do I earn your approval? How do I earn so that I'm right with you? And that's contrary to the gospel.
The gospel says he earned it. And if you believe in him, if you place your faith in Jesus and his payment on the cross, then you have the whole thing. There's no more earning. There's peace. Now I don't have to earn.
That's the gospel. Have you let it fully inform you? And not only is it the entry point, but it's the power source that empowers you every day to live with freedom and to live without guilt and to live with power. Look what Paul says in Romans. For I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believe.
To the Jew first and also to the Greek. The gospel is not just the entry point, it's also the PowerPoint. It's that which empowers us. So it constantly reminds us that God's not keeping a list on us. When he looks at us and he sees our imperfections and, oh, man, I have so many.
He looks at my position in Christ, and Christ paid it all. And that sets me free to follow him, not out of duty, not out of earning, but out of love and out of freedom and joy. Is your heart shaped by the gospel. When the Philippian church first began, it didn't start with a group, a demographic of look alike people, everybody of the same race, same demographic drove up in the same carts. It wasn't like that at all.
In fact, if you look at the Book of Acts, chapter 16, let me just pick out three people that were probably the first members of the Church of Philippi. The first one was a woman named Lydia, successful businesswoman. She owned a purple cloth business, and so she was importing it probably from Phoenicia, which was the source of this very expensive dye, this purple dye. And so it's considered the royal color of purple cloth. And so Lydia is the first convert that Paul has.
He didn't find her at the synagogue because Philippi did not have a synagogue. Very unusual. He always started in the first place in the synagogue. He couldn't find any group of people meeting they could talk to. And he found out there was a group of women that were having kind of a prayer gathering down at a river in Philippi.
I've stood in this river before. There's a church built there that's built a little baptistery there. And I've got a wonderful video of that slowly meandering stream going by. It's a beautiful place. And just thinking about, Lydia was there when Paul preached the gospel to that group of women.
And Lydia came to Christ, this successful businesswoman, and she said, if you find me worthy of the request, if I'm not being too bold, would you be willing to let your disciples meet at my house and stay at my house? And so I think the church started at Lydia's house. Wealthy woman. Some days later, Paul's preaching in the streets of Philippi in the marketplace. And there's this pestering slave girl following him around, going, these people, they represent the God Most High.
You know who they are. They represent God most High. And as fast as he would preach, she would interrupt. And finally he turned to her and he said, in the name of Jesus, be out of her. Demon.
He called a demon out of her. And so she was no longer doing that. He set her free from the demonic. Now that got Paul and Silas in trouble because this little slave girl was a fortune teller. And her master made a lot of money off of her fortune telling business.
And now she's ruined. She's not demon possessed anymore. And so they caused a big riot. Paul and Silas get thrown in a Philippian jail. They get 40 lashes in the public square of the marketplace.
Thrown in jail. Paul's thinking about all this in his Roman cell as he writes this letter. I'm thankful for your partnership in the gospel. He's thinking about those different people he gets thrown in this fallippian jail. Long about midnight, there they are, 40 stripes on their back, blood coated, sticking to their clothes.
They've got bonds on their wrists and on their ankles. And long about midnight, they start singing a hymn. It says, wouldn't that be what you'd do in Hebrew. Amazing grace how sweet the sound. And an earthquake came.
Came and knocked their bonds off. And the doors to the cells, not just their cell, but all the cells in the jailhouse blew open. The jailer who was a Roman citizen, a Roman jailer, he's going to go kill himself because he thinks all the prisoners got loose. And Paul goes, hold up, hold up. We're all still in here.
We're having a prayer meeting. And he goes, oh, my goodness. Why didn't you leave? And he begins to share the gospel with him. What must I do to be saved?
And he goes. And he takes Paul and Silas to his house and he cleanses their wounds and he puts fresh clothes on them. And he leads. Paul leads him in the Gospel. And he and his whole household come to Jesus and get baptized.
Then the Philippian leaders come and go. Let them out. Now, you know, we've done what we need to do. You can let them go. And Paul told the jailer, tell them to come and let us out themselves because I'm a Roman citizen.
This all happened, and they had to come and release them in a public way. So these three people, okay, we got a slave girl. We don't know if she joined the church, but she was useless to her master. Now I'm kind of thinking she joined the church. We got.
We know that Lydia joined the church and it met at her house. And then we got this burly old Philippian jailer and his household. These are three unlikely people, but now they're one because of what they got a heart for. The gospel. They're in the partnership of the gospel.
Now, you look around this room, we're not all the same color. We didn't all drive up in the same car. Some of you drove up in a beater that it was blowing smoke out the tailpipe when you pulled in. And some of you cruised up in here with a real nice ride. Some of you have different backgrounds.
Some of you, as I referred to earlier, say y', all. And some of you say, youse guys. But in Christ, if you're in the partnership of the gospel. You're one. Your heart's been shaped, you've been reborn.
Now what does this mean to be a partner in the gospel? To have our hearts aligned with God's vision for our lives? Can I give you some practical things you might consider today? Here you are on the first Sunday of 2026. I would challenge you to make church attendance a habit in your life, a positive habit.
Tithe. Why not tithe the first portion of every week to God? God, I'm going to give you the first portion of the first day of every week by being faithful to my partnership of the gospel, of my fellowship of the gospel. You already started. Well, why not every Sunday?
There's been a pattern, a national pattern in church attendance that began in 2020. And we're not going to bring up the details of 2020. We're going to move past that. But since then, there's been a national trend of people who call themselves faithful church members only attending about 1.5 Sundays out of four, 1.5 Sundays per month, 1 1/2 Sundays per month. The old average before that year 2020 was 2.5, which is still not great, but it was better than 1.5.
So here's the thing that we're noticing. Our church is getting bigger and bigger, but it's hard to tell because of our low attendance pattern. Friends, this is not the partnership of the gospel that Paul is commending. Why not this year, look at your calendar and say, God, I'm going to make worshiping together with your people a priority in my life in 2026. And you've started off well, start planning for next.
Unless I'm sick, unless I'm on vacation, and if I'm on vacation, I'm going to attend a church out of town. But I'm going to start being serious about my partnership, my fellowship of the gospel. I'm going to start giving the first portion of the first day of the week. And then why not join the one year Bible readers? Read the Bible in a year, give the first portion of every day reading God's word and praying.
So now you're tithing the first part of every day. And then why not also consider how am I doing financially? You should always be looking at your finances, but especially the first of the year. What are your financial goals? I commend that you should plan, you should ask for God's wisdom.
Follow the book of Proverbs. Great teachings there. But how are you investing as a partner in the gospel? Are you a giver? Are you Giving the first portion of your income to God's work.
These are places I want you to really think about. We have this saying in our church and we believe it's following what Jesus has commanded us to do. Eastgate Church exists to make disciples of Jesus Christ who have a growing heart for God, heart for each other and heart for our world. In case you didn't notice, it's on the wall when you came in. We want to be a church that is making disciples, followers of Jesus who have a growing heart for God.
That's demonstrated by their faithful worship. Show up. And by their generous giving. Just be praying about that. Has your heart been shaped by the gospel?
Let's move to the second heart Position the heart priority. And that's the heart that is confident in God's grace. A heart that's confident in God's grace. We're at verses six through eight. Paul begins to express his deep confidence.
Notice this in verse six. And I am sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of of Jesus Christ. I'm sure of this. I'm confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to the day of completion in Christ Jesus. This day is referring to Christ's return.
It might also refer to the day you return to him. Because some of us get called up to heaven before he comes back to earth. That might be you. It might be me. We never know what that day is.
But whose job is it to complete you? And what does completion look like? It looks like you becoming like Jesus that you're made in his image. Genesis, let us make man in our own image. Imago dei, image of God.
This is what's God up to. What's his purpose for your life? Well, the first prototype is Jesus. He's the firstborn from among the dead. He's the first prototype.
He's the one that when we look at him, that's what God's trying to do with us. He wants to make us like Christ Jesus so that Jesus is fully formed in us. And so Paul is praying. I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to the day of completion in Christ Jesus. So he's going to do the work.
So what's my job? Is I just supposed to sit still and just, you know, sit here? No, no. Now, some of you been trying that. Okay, but so, but you're saying earning is by default.
The gospel says receiving is the gospel. Rather than earning. That's right. But you have to work out what he's working in. What does that look like?
It looks like submitting to or yielding to. So Christ wants to be fully formed in your heart and fully formed in your thinking, fully formed in your actions and in your words. So what's that look like? It looks like surrendering those portions of your life to him so that he completes. He's completely formed in you.
So that each of us become like little versions of Jesus in this world. So each of us becomes a reflection of God's glory to this world. This is what Paul is confident of. He goes, I'm praying like this, knowing that he's going to complete this work, but we could make it easier on him. Now, some of us, we've been doing Christianity like we did everything else in school.
We've been going to the school of hard knocks. The way that Christ is having to work in our lives is by working through our lack of yielding, where we are stubborn in areas. And I have to admit that I'm one of you, that I've had those areas too, where it seemed like, I thought I already learned this, Father. I thought I already learned this, Lord, why am I having to go back to remedial studies now? Why are you sending me to summer school?
Why do I have to go back and take this class over again? Did I flunk last time? Is that what's going on? And so, like, go through a season. When my wife and I first got married and we were very poor, and then I thought, okay, I learned that lesson.
Put God first, you know, make sure you give to God and then save for yourself and then live off the rest. You know, pay God first, pay yourself second, live off the rest. I didn't follow that at first, and I got in some financial trouble, but then I learned. But then when I planted this church, we got poor again. I went, well, Lord, now you taught me that when I first got married.
Why are we being poor again? And it's because there were some other things I needed to learn about that so that when I preached, I didn't preach book knowledge, but I preached real knowledge that God is a provider and he can get you through some hard times that you didn't think you would survive. And there's no other way that this church exists except God. Now, I could go on with my journey, but I've learned it's just better to go ahead and yield the whole thing to him, not piecemeal it. You know, like, okay, God, I'm going to trust you with this part because I have fouled this part up so bad I can't fix it.
So can you help me with this part? But I got this part over here I'm still doing pretty good at. I think I'll run this myself. Guess which part is going to be in the most trouble? The part you're still running yourself like that.
Yield it. The whole part of your life. Every part. What part are you holding back today? Holy Spirit?
Show us right now the part that we're holding back in our heart. God. You're invited to this room. This room? This room in my heart.
But not that room. What room have you got locked away that you're not allowing him to rule? I'm praying for that. Verse 7. It is right for me to feel this way about you.
You all because I hold. You got to see it. Do you see this? All these y'? Alls?
Because I hold you in my heart. For you all are partakers with me of grace. He loves them. There's something about being in the koinonia of the Gospel. Being members of the body of Christ.
In so many ways we have a love for each other more than we do for our own family members. Especially that brother in law or maybe that mother in law. They're more like kids. Like fellow brothers and sisters maybe. Or even more dear like grandkids.
Because we love them more than we do our kids. Don't we?
Something about being in the partnership of the gospel that we are so confident that we're partakers. Look what it says next. For you are all partakers with me of grace. You see that in verse seven. So we're partners in the gospel and partakers in the grace.
Word Partakers. Koinonia. Again it's this idea of now what is grace? Grace is unmerited favor. You didn't earn it.
He did. But he's going to give it to you freely if you'll believe. And look how he loves them. For God is my witness how I yearn for you. Verse 8.
With the affection of Christ Jesus. I love you with the love of Christ. That's a man. That's a new kind of love. That love that moves mountains.
What is God's grace? It's that which saves us. But it's also that which calls us and convicts us and builds us. Ephesians, chapter 2. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves as a gift of God.
Not as a result of work. So that no one should boast. We often forget verse 10, but verse 10 says, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, that we should walk in them. And so that's God's grace. That's his unmerited favor.
Now, if you ever started a project that you didn't finish, you ever start a project you didn't finish? Wives, has your husband got any projects going on out in the garage? Like some of you'd be like, yeah, my husband, he's got 12 projects going out in the garage. And there's probably reasons you haven't finished it. Maybe you started it with great gusto, but then you hit a snag and you realized, I actually don't know how to do this project.
Thank the lord for those YouTube do it yourself videos, right? Trying to figure out how to fix it, how to build it. And so you've got some projects. Some of you are just notorious for it, though. You start things, you don't finish them.
But God's not like that. God's not like that. And you're not God's project, his unfinished project in his garage that he's not going to finish. God is going to complete his work in you. Yield your life to him.
He's got a vision for your life. Completely yield every aspect of your life to God, and by grace he will bring it about in your life today. That's number two. Here's the third heart priority. The first was to have a heart for the gospel and then for grace, and then finally a heart that is aimed at God's glory.
A heart that is aimed at God's glory. We're at verses nine through 11, and I want you to see what he's doing here, what Paul's talking about. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment. And so he says, I want you to have a heart that bursts with love. It abounds more and more so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.
There's that day of Christ again, of his return, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory. You see it there? Underline that in your notes. That we're to live for the glory of God. What's my purpose?
To live for the glory of God. That's the purpose that he made man for. Let us make man in our own image. That we're to be the imago dei, the image of God in This world that we're to shine. And so what's it look like?
It looks like loving more and more that your life abounds. It overflows with love. It looks like. What else does he pray here? Knowledge and discernment, you could say knowledge and wisdom.
So that you have this new heart that thinks with the mind of Christ.
So that you have available to you the wisdom of God, that you're able to make good decisions and to approve what is excellent. And you might say the reverse of that and to disprove what is not.
And to be filled with the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. To be overflowing with the fruit of the Spirit so that you bring glory to God. He's praying like this that all of this would exist in you so that God gets the glory and not you. In John, chapter 15, Jesus teaches this.
He says, by this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
I bet there are very few of you, maybe you've never thought to do it. Have made a New Year's commitment to say, I want to have more love in my life this year. I want people to see the love of Christ more fully in me this year.
More peace. I want peace on exhibit rather than anxiety, fear, more joy. Lord, help. Help me with. I fight discouragement.
I fight depression. Let 2026 be a year of joy.
Let's just kind of pray through the nine seeds that are in the fruit of the Gospel. Love, joy, peace, patience. Be careful about praying for that one. No, pray for that. You'll probably get some opportunities to practice it.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Lord, can I grow? Can I abound in these so that God gets the glory? You know, there are mirrors and there are windows. They're both made of glass.
A mirror is made of glass. A window is made of glass. When you look at a mirror, you see yourself. It focuses back on you. When you look through a window, it focuses out towards others and towards.
Well, towards the world and towards even the heavens. Depends on how you look out a window. We're to be more like windows than mirrors in a sense that we. We want people to look at us and to see Christ in us rather than to see us in us. So that we could pray like this in 2026.
Less of Gary, more of you, Jesus, less of me. More of you.
So that I'm becoming more like Jesus and less like the old man that I used to be, abounding in love, abounding in it. And only in Christ can this be possible. And it proves that I'm a follower of Jesus. He says in Matthew, chapter five, he says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Let your light shine and then help them to see him.
Now, I pray this year that you would make this commitment to be part of the partnership of the Gospel. To be faithful, to worship every Sunday with the Lord. To be faithful in your generosity, to be faithful as one who's growing in righteousness and growing in the fruit of the Spirit. Why not this year? Bring your heart's vision into alignment with God's heart.
For you and for some of you that are here today, your first step is going to be to pray with me in just a second to believe in the Gospel for the first time, to actually receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Others are here, and you've done that. You're a believer. But you need to grow in the Gospel, to grow in its application to your heart and into your commitment and faithfulness. So make a commitment this year to go on the journey together as partners in the gospel.
Be here every Sunday even more. If you've been doing that or you've been attending, well, attend one, serve one. That's why we have two services. Attend the first one, Serve the second one in guest services or tech team or worship team or children's ministry or some area. So attend one, serve one or serve one, attend one.
Okay. Come to the first service as a service servant. That's how Jesus came. He came as a servant. Why not this year, make it your goal to bring your life into alignment with being partners in the Gospel, partakers of his grace.
Let's ramp up our commitment this year as a church. Let's get a vision for our place in God's story. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for Paul's prayer for us that we hear across the ages.
It still rings true. I pray for that person that's here today that you've never given your life to. Jesus. You can do it right now. You can make a decision right now to follow him.
Pray like this. Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. Just admit it. I'm a sinner. I've fallen short of your glory.
But I believe you died on the cross for me. I believe that you were raised from the grave and that you live today. I believe you died for my sins as payment and that you're ready to forgive me. Lord, forgive me of my sins. Set me free so I can follow you.
I want to follow you all the days of my life as Lord and Savior. If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing he will save you, he will adopt you into his family, make you a child of God, what a great way to begin the year, to begin a new life. Others are here and you're a believer, but you've been holding back areas of your life. You've been inconsistent in your commitment. You've been holding back out of fear or busyness.
Why not today? Say, lord, forgive me, help me to be a full partner in the gospel. Not just that it saves me, but that has given me a purpose and a vision for my life. We pray all this now in Jesus name. Amen.
Audio
Good morning, church. Thanks for coming today. I want to start with something kind of unusual. And I don't do this every week, but it's the first of the year, and a handful of our people perhaps this year spent some time reading through the One Year Bible. So guess what?
We do gift cards sometimes, but you got to earn them around here. So is there anyone in the audience, if you will stand to your feet and just come down front. If you completed the One Year Bible this year, we have a gift for you. So is there anybody in here who knocked that out? Don't be bashful.
Yeah, there we are. I knew there was somebody. We had a few more I know of that were not well today, so I have to give them theirs another time. Good job, y'. All.
Y' all give them another hand. Hey, appreciate it. Good stuff. Well done. Well done.
We acknowledge this. Why? Well, first of all, because that's awesome and it's a labor of love. But I bet if we could spend some time interviewing you, it was meaningful, right? You learned a lot about the Lord this year, probably saw some new things.
Reading through the Bible in a year, you really get immersed in Scripture. Even some of the spots in the past, you were like, I don't know why I'm getting this. What is this part? The book of Leviticus can be like that. The book of Numbers can be like that.
But the more you do that exercise, the more those things begin to connect. And you go, oh, I see why we were told that. And so we want to acknowledge that great work because we want to encourage the rest of you. Spend time in God's word. It's God's love letter to you.
There's probably someone in the room today that in the new year is saying, I just wish God would give me a fresh word. If you're not in here, you're not likely to get it. Okay, so this is where he gives fresh words. So hop in there. But it's 2000 plus years old.
Trust me, you. If you've never read it, it's going to be fresh to you. All right, so let's get into it. Today we're starting a series called Vision My prayer for you, My prayer for myself, My prayer for our church is that we would have a clear vision this year from the Lord Jesus, that it would be a confident faith, that we would be encouraged by the gospel, that we would be on mission this year, and that this vision would not be some kind of personal thing, some kind of initiative that's mine. But it would actually be from the Lord, that I would have a vision from on high, if you will.
That's the kind of vision I want to unpack today. Not the kind of vision that we most often talk about, which is, can I clearly see my future? Where am I going next? That's good, that's a good conversation. But there's something even bigger.
It's this question is how clear am I seeing God? How clear am I seeing his purposes, his goals for me, my place, in fact, the story of God. That's the vision I want to speak of for the next couple weeks with you. So I want you to hear first something really important. And if you get nothing else today, I pray you get this.
That God is intent on first working internally before externally. That God's vision always works from the inside out. That's how God does things. That's how he is. He doesn't start by fixing your circumstances.
I know you would like those fixed, right? Some of you are like, I'd very much like him to repair some of my problems. He may, but he's going to begin in your heart. Over the next four weeks. We're going to see God's vision touching every aspect of our life.
We're going to start with the heart, which is this vision of becoming like Christ. We're going to talk about our homes next week, what it looks like to have a vision of God for your family, for your home, for your. For your work. That's what that will entail. The next one will be hands, God's work and God's service.
And then finally God's harvest. So because we're so cool, we've got four H words for you for the next couple weeks. Today, heart, next week, home, then hands, then harvest. So I pray you'll take the journey with us. I pray that you'll get a clear vision for God and for what he desires for you for the year, maybe for the next couple of years, maybe he'll give you some clear insight as to where he's leading you as a person, as a family and for his mission.
Some of us, I have to admit, even me, some of us feel like we have no vision at times. Not this kind of vision. Maybe we have an idea of what we want to see happen in our future. But this kind of vision sometimes can escape us. We feel like we're kind of drifting more often.
I bet you feel this way, I feel this way. We feel like we're reacting to life rather than being proactive. We feel like we're just alright Someone is throwing punches, I need a block. That's how we feel. Rather than I have a plan from the Lord and this is where I'm going.
And that can be tough. The Bible speaks of this, that without a vision for your life, life can feel very purposeless. The scripture is warn in this way. It says in Proverbs 29 that where there is no vision, the people perish. This is true of nations for sure, but it's also true of us that maybe we don't perish physically, but our dreams begin to die.
Some of you have reached that place where you say it never happened. So I guess I need to let that go. And it maybe was a thing that God had always spoken into your life and you set it aside because of an unclear vision. Others of us do have some vision, but it feels in conflict, maybe unclear. Here's my prayer for you today and for myself.
Is that whether you come with no vision or poor vision, or maybe you just feel a little discouraged in where God's leading you, that your hearts would be more and more aligned with the Lord if we get nothing right today, that our hearts would come into alignment with where he's sending us. I'm of a confident belief that God made me specifically for some reason, that he above all else knows what that is and he's not hiding it from me. He desires very much to let me see his desire for me if I would walk with him. So that's exactly where we're going to be today. We're going to be in the book of Philippians for the next few weeks.
We're going to spend all of our time there in Philippians today. We're going to start in chapter one really with Paul encouraging. This should be an encouraging sermon to you today. And so stick around. I'll give you some sermons that maybe will be a little more challenging.
I pray today will give you a little challenge. But mostly today I think you'll be encouraged in the Lord. That's Paul's objective today. He's writing from a Roman prison and he seems really pumped up, which is wild. He seems really encouraged despite his chains.
And so we're going to be in Philippians with seeing the Apostle Paul expressing his joy, his affection for them and praying desperately for them to grow grow in following God's plan for their life. We're going to see the text give us in fact three heart priorities as we dig into this text. And so let's read together Philippians chapter one, just a few verses three through eleven. It says This I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now. And I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart. For you are all partakers with me in grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel. For God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and with all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. This is God's word.
Amen. Now, there's a couple of spots in here that are kind of difficult to read because he says you all. And I think what Paul really meant, means to say there is y'. All. So you Northerners just.
I think that's why it's a difficult read. I have no doubt if Paul was here in Southern America, he'd be saying, always in prayer of mine for y'. All. Making my prayer with joy. And I'm just.
I'm embracing that today. This feeling he has first for them and now across 2,000 years, that he has that God has, that I have for the church. And I pray also that over you, that the first priority we really see the heart move is that we would have a heart that is shaped by God's gospel. Now, that sounds very Bible school. That sounds very Sunday morning, right?
Like, what do I do with that, the heart that is shaped by God's gospel? Because guess what? All of you tomorrow are probably not gonna spend time here. You're gonna be somewhere else, at your workplaces, in your schools. And this question comes to mind, what does it mean to have a heart shaped by the gospel of Paul comes out and says it this way.
He says, I'm thankful to my God when I think about you. And my prayers look like this. My prayers look like joy and my prayers look like, hey, I'm thankful for these people that are partnering in the gospel. This is how we ought to feel about one another. We're partners in the mission of God in little old Rocky Mountain, in little old Nash county, that God has put us together.
He's doing a work in this place for the ministry of the gospel. And Paul says, I'm thankful for this, I'm overjoyed and I'm praying for this to abound more and more, that our partnership in the gospel would grow. Now, this is interesting because this means our heart should be about this kind of work. Now, don't get me wrong, you've got different kinds of tasks ahead of you this week. Some of you know, you've got tests and quizzes to take, some of you have got work to do, some of you do very abstract jobs.
And it may be hard for you to imagine, how do I do this as a plumber? How do I do this as an electrician? What does it look like? I don't even see people half the time. Well, when you do, let the gospel be part of what's shaping you.
See, look, the gospel as Paul sees it here isn't meant to just save. This is a confusing thing. I think, at least in the American church, is that what it means to have salvation is to receive fire insurance. And that's not the nature of the first century church at all. Now, don't get me wrong, that's true.
I have good news, friend. I have good news. When you come to Christ Jesus, heaven is in store for you that you have an eternity with God. That's great, great news. But you don't have to wait.
I think this could be a disheartening thing for you to hear as a Christian, that, okay, I've got this wonderful gift, but I've got to wait on it. That's not true at all. In fact, Paul is commending them that they're partnering for this wonderful thing now, that there is a mission of God today, that being shaped by the gospel then means I have something to acknowledge every moment of every day. This is awesome. This gives my life meaning.
The gospel doesn't just save me, it reshapes me. Hallelujah, I have a new purpose. Second Corinthians tells us this way. It says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation. The old has passed away.
Behold, the new has come. So the gospel doesn't just. It's not just an entry point, it's the source of it all. It's not just, okay, I've heard this good news that Christ Jesus died for me and took on my sin, that he rose from the grave. I know that.
I heard that when I was a child. No, you need to hear that again today because that's the power source for Living. It says it this way in Romans, chapter one. I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believe. To the Jew first, and then also to the Greek, it is the power of God.
There's something interesting going on here in Philippi. I just want to give you a little bit of backstory just to make you. So when you look around the room, and I would encourage you just for a moment look around the room, you know, it's okay. Take a peek around. Don't make it weird.
There's people of all different ages, of all different races and genders, and all different backgrounds. If we had time to really introduce one another and get to know the stories, we'd find out people are coming from all kinds of backgrounds. This is the beautiful thing about the church that now has happened here. This is the power of the gospel. It breaks down barriers.
It's changing lives. Otherwise, it makes very little sense for us to gather together and sing these songs. This is. If you just step back for a minute. What we do on Sunday mornings is very strange.
Unless Christ Jesus did die, unless this thing of salvation is real, then we gather with shared faith. It doesn't matter where we came from, because we can have that in common. This has been true since the very beginning. And this is. I just want to let you know something.
This is what's really amazing about Christianity. And this is what they couldn't have imagined until they saw it in the first century. Because the Jew and the Greek, as I just mentioned, would have had nothing to do with one another before this. Nothing, nothing would have united them. And now they come together in worship.
This is what's happening in Philippi. You can read about this in Acts, chapter 16. But some of the very first believers who come to the church of Philippi are some of the most separated kind of people you can imagine. We see, we read this about this woman named Lydia, who's a successful businesswoman who helps house the apostles at times. Okay, cool.
Like we've got this kind of put together person. That must be what church is about. It's about putting together people. Aren't you thankful it's not some of you? But I am put together.
No, you're not. And I'm not either. It's a bunch of unput together people coming together for the sake of the gospel. Lydia. Okay, that makes sense.
No. Guess who's, like next mentioned? A slave girl who's trapped by spiritual and human bondage. Then we get this story of the Roman jailer So some of the first people in the church of Philippi are a businesswoman, a slave, and a jailer. Okay, this is a strange church.
Welcome to the family of God. This is what God does. The gospel doesn't just come to the respectable. It comes to the rejected. It doesn't just come to make you comfortable.
It does far more than that. It frees you from captivity. My question to you then is this. Has it began to shape your life?
You're here. That's a good step. We're in fellowship with the body of Christ this morning. Good. That's a great thing.
But it doesn't stop here. It doesn't even start here. It moves from this place into Monday through Friday, Saturday. So that the gospel begins to shape my life, that my heart begins to be aligned with the vision of God that treasures gospel partnership everywhere. This is why our church has.
You probably have heard these. Some of you have been here long enough that you know what our three heart statements are. Heart for God, heart for each other, heart for our world. Cool. That sounds really great.
There's some stuff underneath that that really holds it up. Heart for God is meant that we would be a church who has a heart shaped for God. Good, I like that. But underneath it, we say these two things. We say in passionate worship and in generous giving.
Oh, I see now why they kind of hide that under there. Right? I don't know about passionate worship. Okay. I'm for that.
I'm for that. Well, I'm sort of for that. I mean, I'm thankful when I come here and these people seem to be excited about the worship. You know, we don't do this, you know, as a show. I think you probably know that.
No, this is so we can worship and then so you can worship. So we can join in worship. If it's a show, we need to stop. We're doing it. That we might lead you to a place where you can lift the name of God.
High, passionate worship, generous giving. That means as gospel partners, we commit not just to be here together, not just to be in our homes throughout the week, but that we generously give each other of our time, of our talents, of our treasures, that we have a kind of life that lives open handed. That's what it means to be shaped by the gospel. That doesn't just happen for two hours on Sunday, that it shapes your every day. Then Paul goes on to talk about this idea of a heart that is confident in God's grace.
I pray for that for you as well, that you would Have a heart that is confident in God's grace. He expresses this wonderful. I want to say this not only of myself, but of you, Church. He says, listen to this. It's beautiful.
Verse 6. He says, I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. That what God started, God's going to finish, man. That's incredible news. That's a great prayer too.
That good work. This idea of one has undertaken a good work and you will bring it to the end. The word here means perfection or execution, completion. That God always finishes what he starts. He finishes what he starts and he goes on to say, and he's going to make it happen at the day of Jesus Christ.
This is one of these terms that you see appear in the Bible that's really speaking of the end, that a time is coming when Christ will return. And at that point in time he will be completing his work in you. Now, I imagine there's probably still some work that's going to be needing to be done on little old me and little old you in heaven. I don't know what that's going to look like. A few more things to learn.
But the sin will be dealt with. There'll be something new there, I imagine. Still opportunities to learn. And eternity just seems like a really long time to me. I have a hard time getting my head around that.
But he says, this good work that started here, God's going to finish it when he returns.
And he's confident in this. Why? Because these people stuck around when things got hard.
These are the kind of friends I pray we can be as a church body, that these are the kinds of people we might be to one another. Paul gets imprisoned and they don't turn their backs on him. This would be a dangerous thing to do, to come and minister to him. It seems they came and brought him things in prison, came and saw him, visited him there. Perhaps it even means, I mean, if you read this sentence, that you are partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment.
Perhaps it means also some of them were imprisoned as well. We do believe, at least on occasion, Timothy might have been imprisoned. Luke, maybe he says, look, you were a part of the gospel going out in every kind of way, the joy and the pain. And I'm confident in the good work God started because you didn't run when things got hard.
Instead you defended and confirmed. So then in verse eight, he says, it's with great affection that I yearn this. See God's grace begins a work in you. When you come to salvation, that is God's grace beginning a work in you. Some of you did this as very young people.
God's not done. You're still here. If he was done with you, I think you would cease. He would remove you. So if you're still drawing breath, God is still sustaining a work in you.
He has a plan for your future. It doesn't matter if, hey, I've moved on from this job. I'm retired now. It seems like I'm coming to the last. Some of you feel like you're in the fourth quarter of the game.
The game's still on, though. He's sustaining a work in you. This is what it says in Ephesians 2. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So God started something, and he's still working on it. Some of you are coming into the church today and you're feeling a lot of. There are a lot of these circumstances. There are a lot of these things you're facing right now.
Maybe work's gotten really challenging. Maybe the finances are a mess. Maybe the holidays brought something to light about how your family is struggling that you had not seen. Maybe there was someone not at the table this Christmas that you miss. There's trials, there's problems that we're facing, and you'd very much like them to disappear.
But perhaps part of what God is doing in sustaining his grace to you is walking you through the valley. It's not accidental. He's right there. It's part of his plan. And what we can do is get lost in this idea of it's got to go away.
Make it stop. I can't. Instead of seeing God. What are you doing here? Why am I down here?
Help me walk through this. Help me to learn what you're showing me. Often that's the case because God, who started a good work in you, will bring it to completion. Now, I'm thankful for this because I have to admit something to you, Church. I start projects sometimes that I don't finish.
I know that's hard to hear. Especially all you men in the room that finish every project you've ever started, which is probably none of you. I bet there's something in your garage right now you started. I'll get to it. I'll tell you what happens to me?
I get somewhere in the middle of a project and realize I don't have the right tools for this project that I'm working on. And I'd very much like to go to Lowe's or wherever and get the tools for this project. But my bank account doesn't seem to want to work with me on this because I always need some kind of. Really. I bought a tool, y', all, when I tore up the floor in my kitchen.
I've used it once. It was a very expensive tool, and it was cool. I probably should have done what a good man would do and just call a friend who might have said, tool. But I thought, this is a tool I need, and I've not used it since I did. Now, that was a project I finished.
But if you go into my kitchen today, you'll look around and go, there's some things not done in here. So I did one part of that project. Not all parts.
I lack often the time. More often I lack the skill. And if not that, I like the straight up just lack the tools to finish projects. I have great ideas, y'. All.
I really do. And I bet y' all do, too, sometimes. My wife has really great ideas, and she thinks. I don't know why she thinks this. That I can do everything, and that's cool.
I mean, in a way, that's really kind of awesome. She thinks I am just an amazing builder, and I don't want to burst her bubble. So I will start things, and some of you might get a call from me going, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm in big trouble.
This is not who God is.
He's profoundly different than this you might be experiencing right now. A time where you feel like, I am a project very much unfinished. I'm right. If God's at work in me, he's still got the scaffolding up, and it ain't looking great. I have great news, friend.
The prayer of Paul here applies to you. He who began a good work will bring it to completion. This is part trust. What does this mean then? Trust.
This is why he would. Why else would he say this to the Philippians who are going through great turmoil? This is a church that's being persecuted. He's telling them, hey, he's not done. This is part of his plan.
The scaffolding is part of it. My life's a mess, Jonathan. It's just a mess. Good. God's at work now.
If it's a mess you caused, you can't Blame that on God. Let me just go ahead and put that out there to you. Some of you made your mess. You need to be prayerful. God, help me get out of this mess I caused.
But some of it is God's work. And I'm praying for you. I pray you'd pray for yourself. God, bring this to completion. Don't get discouraged.
Don't get stuck. God is still at work. Trust in his grace. Stop living in this fear of some kind of failure. The only failure I think that we can have in this life is to walk away from God.
That's the only true failure in this life. That we would walk away from the one who's doing the work in us. That we would say, you know what? I don't buy it. That would be the only great failure in this life.
But to stick it out in thick and thin on the roller coaster ride of this life that everybody's experiencing in Christ or apart from Christ. We're all on the roller coaster. But what Christ is giving me is clear vision and a purpose. And I know he's up to something. It gives me great confidence.
And this is what Paul has for you. And here's the third heart. So a heart that's shaped by the gospel, a heart that's confident in grace, and then a heart that is aimed at God's glory.
This is a weird one, y'. All. Like Paul's praying that they would be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus to the glory and the praise of God, so that their lives begin to actually point to God. That's what he's praying for. Not that they would be glorified, not that they would be praised.
Hey, look. Sometimes Christians get this real wrong that, hey, look what I've done. Look, this is. Look at me, you know, popping collars. No, no, no.
That's not what's going on here. He says that they would be so filled that God would be glorified.
This changes things, right? If you really would just step back for a second, I pray you would do this in your own mind. What is it that I'm aiming at? What is the end state of my hard work? Is it that I would have more.
Is it that I would have more authority, more money, more power? Is it that my family would think better of me?
Is it I've got something to prove to myself or to others? What is it that drives me? I just got to keep food on the table. That's okay, right? But Paul's not praying for that.
And that's not a very good vision. If you just pause for a minute. That's not the greatest vision. That's not going to keep you working with joy and with the gospel.
Let me pause then and say, well, what is it that I'm trying to achieve? Well, here's a big goal. Boy, this is a really big goal. Paul says, I want you to be so filled with the fruit of righteousness that God would be praised.
I never hear anybody say anything like that. I've never heard that in any business's mission statement. Never heard that from any place I ever worked. A boss came in and said, hey, if anything else, I just want you to be filled with righteousness so that God would be praised. That'd be a boss I'd want to work for.
This is the Philippian life statement, if you will. What would it look like, Church, for our goal to be this? That my life would bear such fruit, the fruit of righteousness, that people would say, what in the world is going on? And they would look up. Your life is completely changing.
Why Christ in me that your love may abound. This is where he goes, love may abound. That your knowledge and discernment, that you would grow. This is what he's speaking of. That the fruit of righteousness would just blossom in you.
That this idea you would be able to. This is a crazy kind of statement here. In verse 9 or verse 10, he says that you may approve what is excellent, that you would be the kind of people who would start to see what is good and what is bad. Because guess what? We've gotten real confused as a people.
This isn't new to human history, just so you know. Don't feel bad. This isn't new, but we're getting very confused about what to say is good and what to say is bad. This was happening in the first century, it's happening in the 21st century. We call good things bad things and bad things good things.
We do it all the time. Watch the news for five seconds and then turn it off and you'll find out bad sales. And that's all you'll mostly see. It seems like right now we live, or at least for the last several years, really, since 2020, we've been saying up is down and left is right. I mean, we've just been everywhere.
Paul tells us, hey, guess what? Nothing's new. Relax, Church. I'm praying that you might have knowledge and discernment and approve what is good, what is excellent, that you might have clear eyes to see. I love what one commentator writes on this.
He says that you would have an intelligent apprehension of what is right and wrong. You would know good from evil. It is remarkable here how anxious the apostle appears to be that they are not only believers, but intelligent believers and should understand the real worth and value of objects. This is a great prayer for the people. I don't just want you to bear fruit.
I want you to be able to look at this life and say, this is good, this is evil. This is what we're going to be a part of as a people. This we're going to avoid. This we're not going to back.
This is unto the glory of God. This is the whole point, the glory and praise of God. This is what it says. Spiritual fruit filled lives are God glorifying lives. In John chapter 15 it says this.
By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. You want to know what glorifies God? Bear fruit. Jesus calls us to good works and bring glory not to ourselves, but to the Father. This is what he says in Matthew 3, 5, just after what I read a moment ago.
It says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. This is what it means to walk in faith, to be shaped by the gospel. I want to end with this thought. It's interesting to me that, and I don't really understand this. I'm sure someone in the room after church, you can tell me how this works.
I don't understand how. How glass can both be a mirror and can be see through. That confuses me. All right. These are little things.
And some of you are like, well, it's this molecular. Praise God for you. Tell me later, because I haven't done the research, but I find these little things in life to be really fascinating that it can. This same glass, in a way can both be a mirror and a window. And mirrors are pretty helpful.
I'm thankful for them. You know, I'm kind of weird about my hair. Some of you know this. I don't want to walk out with any of it off, right? So I'm thankful for mirrors.
And mirrors are also kind of distracting to me. If I walk by one, I have to do one of these, you know, that's me. I'm a mess. But windows are pretty fascinating too. And they've even got those ones you can see through.
We've got one right back there. You can see through one side and it's a mirror on the other. Wow. I Mean, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool right there.
But the thing about this is, and the reason I bring this up is because so many of us, we have all the right components. Everything's in there. God, who started a good work in you, will bring it to completion. So come with me on this journey. All of us have the same components.
We're glass, if you will, right. But some of us, we're trying to figure out how it is we are supposed to glorify God and not ourselves that so often what we're aiming at or what we're doing ends up being more like a mirror than it does a window. The goal of God here is the goal of this writing to you. The goal of this message to you today is that you would begin to see your life not as a mirror, but as a window to God. Now, you may not think this is true yet, but I promise you it will be.
That when people begin to see you as a Christian, a believer in your workplaces, in your families, they're going to start looking closer. Uh oh, they're going to start watching you. It's probably already happening. Unless, of course, you've been incognito up to this point. I can't let them know, right?
Because once they know. Oh yeah, once they know, they're going to start looking. And the question is going to be, are you just a big old fat mirror going, well, Jonathan's still the same guy. He still just says the most outlandish stuff and tears people down. Comes to work late and he ain't changed a bit.
This Christianity thing's a hoax. They don't know all the details. Don't get me wrong, like, we're not called to perfection. But they're watching you. And the question is, if you just keep holding it well, Jonathan's still showing up, same as he was.
Or are they beginning to see the glory of God like a window that when they peer through your life, they actually peer through and see Christ in you. As we begin this new year, I want you to be asking yourself this really important question. What is God's vision for my life? Where is he leading me? I'm still here.
He has a purpose for me. Where? Where is he taking me? Not just, hey, I got to go to work this week. Hey, I have a plan for this summer.
Hey, I have plans this year. No way past that. What is God up to in my life? What am I truly aiming at? Am I growing, as Paul says, in my love to abound, more and more in My knowledge and discernment in my fruit of righteousness.
Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be challenging you to take some steps to walk closer to Jesus. Some of them you can do right here in the building. These are going to sound self serving. They kind of are. I'm not even going to be dishonest about it.
But I also know this. They're going to also self serve you. There are a couple of ways here at the church. If you're new here, there's a couple of ways that you can really become part of our family. Coming to church and worshiping with us.
Very good. It's not going to connect you like that though. We've only got a few minutes together. You've got some minutes in passing and some of you are doing better than others. You'll stick around and you'll linger and it's because you're probably trying to make relationships.
But if you really want to know what it means to have a family here, there's really only a couple of ways you can do that. Well, number one would be serving, Being a part of a team of people. But I just showed up for the first time. Cool. Serve with us next week.
I don't even know if I like this church yet. Well, you'll definitely know after next week if you'll serve with us for a little bit, A little bit. And just come shake some hands and say hey, and service teams. It's kind of like when you go to work, you know the people you work with, you get to know them really well. And it's pretty easy to decide who's going to be, you know, friend group there.
But it's because you're shoulder to shoulder doing work. The ministry of the Gospel is no different. Come and serve. Get in our community groups. I know this is a challenging step that you would go just show up at somebody's house.
I promise you this. All we do are four things. It's not weird. We're not trying to be a cult. It comes right out of Acts, chapter two.
We do four things together. That's it. We eat together. It says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the breaking of bread, to prayer and to fellowship. Here's what we're gonna do.
If you show up at one of our groups, we're gonna talk about what we just heard in discussion. We're gonna pray, we're gonna eat. Now this is where it gets weird. Cause people bring weird stuff to eat. I can't help you there.
All right, we're Doing some kind of international thing tonight. So if you wanna come to that. I don't know what we're about to eat. Apparently fake Kiyobasa. I don't even know what that means.
All right, so I'm scared. But that's what we're having at my small group tonight. You're welcome. Come on. But that's what we're going to do every week.
And we're going to spend some time just getting to know each other. So these are the ways to get connected at our church. Serve with us. In a few weeks, we're going to launch two services permanently up here. Our times are going to be 9, 15, and 11.
So we're going to do week in and week out. If you want to know what it means to get more connected, serve at one and attend the other. And you'll really get to know people here. You'll join the family and we do all of this that we might have a heart shaped for the Gospel by his grace and for his glory. So I pray you'll stick around for a few weeks as we get a clear vision for God.
Let's continue now in prayer together. Heavenly Father, I just ask you that you would unite us as a family, that we would be the kind of church that really does take care of each other. I'm just amazed by the Philippian church as they're portrayed here, that they didn't abandon one another even in the midst of imprisonment. Even when things got really hard, they stuck together. I want to be that kind of church, Lord.
The kind of church that really gets arm in arm. And I'm guilty of this too, Lord, that at times I get very selfish. At times I just want to do my thing. But, Lord, I pray you would break my heart of stone, as you're doing that in everyone, that you would soften us to care for one another. Well, that would be the kind of church that really glorifies you.
I pray for that person who's come in here today. And the idea of a heart shape for the gospel is pretty hard for them. Reason being because they've never said yes to it. Perhaps you're tugging on their heart today, Lord, and just impressing on them that they need to come to faith, say yes to this truth. They've heard it perhaps, maybe they're hearing it very clearly today.
Dear friend, if that's you today, I want to give you the opportunity to receive Christ Jesus, that you would receive the gospel which will begin to shape your life. It begins here with a moment of Confession, a moment of faith. If that's you, my friend, pray simply this with me. Jesus, I believe today that you are my Lord and my Savior. I believe that you died on the cross for my sin, for my sake, for my guilt and my shame.
Lord, you paid. I believe that. And God, I believe that you raised Christ Jesus from the dead because of these truths. I have great hope and great faith that you have saved me. So I place my faith in that today.
Now, Lord, and I ask, would you begin to guide me to a life that is shaped by your word, by the good news of the gospel? That I would align myself with you, dear friend, if you prayed that. Welcome to our family. We're all praying that last part with you. God, help us to have lives that are shaped by the truth.
Not shaped by everything the world throws at us, not shaped by the culture. No, Lord, help us, protect us from those things. Help us to have lives that are shaped by the word of God and by the good gospel of Jesus Christ. God, I pray this over your people. I pray this over myself.
Help us to be the kind of church that fulfills the great commission in our city that I'm truly thankful for, but also desiring more. God, I just know that you desire us to be a church that would reach a people here in our city, that there are people far from you that you seek to find, seek to help through us. God, would you move your people even this week to be gospel bearers having lives shaped by the good news? I pray all of these things in Jesus name, Amen.