We're in Philippians chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, Paul writes, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. This is the Word of the Lord. Father in heaven, when we come to the time in our worship service where the Word is preached, we know that it's not about entertainment, it's not about seeking to feel something, it's about your Spirit, and the dependence we have on you, Holy Spirit, to work in us, that we might think and feel and act accordingly. Lord, the gospel and the story of this love is so great. It's so great that truly, we should leave your people in a place of incredible awe and wonder, heart's full of zeal, longing so much to live a life in a manner worthy of that which is proclaimed. Please, Lord, touch us, move within us, inspire in us a deep affection for you, as we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, there's no question that this weekend, each year, is one of my favorite because college football kicks off. Now, depending on how your team does, the weekend is really good or not so really good. We've had a great day. The weather has been incredible. And I watched a lot of football yesterday. My team wasn't on TV, I'm actually kind of glad based on the reports I heard. That's the Sooners. But I kept hearing something over and over again. It's not uncommon to hear an announcer say this, especially during the first few weeks of the season. This is the phrase, this team is still searching for an identity. This team is still trying to figure out who they are. It's an interesting phrase that sports casters would talk about identity. It seems as if the teams would know who they are. If you're a long-horned fan and you were watching the game yesterday and you watched them go for it on fourth and one on the goal line, at some point you had to be thinking, the long horns, they're owls. We're long horns, they're owls, go for it. And when the owls stopped the long horns for that brief moment, that celebration of, we're owls, they're long horns. It was all the identity that was needed. The game went as it should have, of course, the better team won. But coaches, instill in their players the sense of identity. They tell them over and over again, you're an Aggie. You're a Gator. You are part of the Crimson Tide, reigning national champions. That's our identity. It's who we are. So often in the church, we forget our identity. We forget who we are. And in the midst of forgetting who we are, we begin to go through motions that seem to be so disconnected with what's really true. It wasn't high school. My freshman year, our team won the State 5A Championship in Oklahoma City, or State of Oklahoma. It was a big deal. My sophomore, junior and senior years, the expectations were always high. We were always ranked in the top five preseason. We were always good. On our calendar, each of those Fridays in August, there was a date. It was called VOB Day. We would focus on it all year during spring training, and VOB stood for Victory Over Bombers, Midwest City. Midwest City Bombers, a great program. Their quarterbacks, Kell Gundy, former OU standout, Mike Gundy, the current coach of Oklahoma State. Those were the quarterbacks, those two brothers. I played against them both. In each case, in the beginning of those seasons, we lost. The idea, the dream, the thrill of an undefeated season was gone because we couldn't win the first game. But at the end of each of those opening season games, the same thing was heard in our bus as we drove back to our school. The tradition was two blocks away from the school, as we turned off of Lake Overholster Road onto 36th Street. You would begin to hear the players sing our school's fight song. Go Fighting Patriots. Win for Putnam West. No one else can beat us when we wear the blue and gold fight, fight, fight! And we would continue singing that fight song. And when we finished each and every time, twice we would say, Roll, Pat's Roll. Roll, Pat's Roll. What a disconnect. I remember thinking it odd as a sophomore. Coming off of an undefeated season the year before, we're singing a phrase. No one else can beat us when we wear the blue and gold. But we just got beat. Sometimes I think that's how we worship. We're proclaiming the truth in him's. But given the life that we're living now, the world that we're in, the deep need for comfort and courage, it's almost as if there's a disconnect. Victory has been won by Christ. Victory has been won. He said it is finished. He said he will return. We can sing with the promise and expectation of what I'm going to call divine certainties. The reason the church loses its identity. The reason many pastors are constantly trying to figure out, how do we get more people here? What method can we use to draw more in? Is that we have lost sight of who we are. Baved in the divine certainties of what God has given us. You see God has given us our identity. What is it? In a word it's Christ. I want to say it again and I want you to repeat it back. God has given us our identity. And in a word it is... Now say it like you mean it like those children shouting to the balcony. God has given us our identity. And in a word it is... That's us. That's who we are. And when we speak of Christ, Paul says to live is Christ to die is gain. That's our identity. It's who we are. And it's bathed in divine certainties. Not our human feelings. Not our intellectual affirmations. It's true. No matter how you feel, no matter how complex it isn't your mind and the things you can't connect, these divine certainties are what we have hoping. And here Paul is saying, church, be one. Be of the same mind. Be of the same love. Have the same mind. Be one. All in one accord. Last week I shared with you that if we simply treat that John Lennon did with his song, imagine, well it's hopelessly superficial. It's hopelessly superficial. But if we believe these divine certainties, if we trust in these propositions that Paul has given, then there is the reality of what that oneness might look like. So Paul has given us in the first verse of Philippians 2 for propositions. These propositions are divine certainties. Here's what he's saying, because you have encouragement in Christ, because you have comfort from his love, because you have participation in the Spirit, because there's affection and sympathy, you can have the same mind, the same love being in full accord enough one mind. So this morning what I want to do is round out the four legs of that seat. If the seat is oneness, if it's unity, if it's being in one accord, I said last week the first leg is encouragement in Christ. Now just to remind you, the word encouragement was defined this way. It is to inspire hope and give courage and give confidence. So this side of heaven, in the already not yet, we can have encouragement. But our encouragement doesn't simply come from the feeling or a thought. It comes from a proclamation of truth, who you are. You're a saint, you're in Christ. You're covered in Christ. You have on his clothing, his righteousness, you're in Christ. But now the other three legs. I'm going to spend most of my time on the next two. This comfort from his love and the participation of the Holy Spirit or fellowship of the Holy Spirit and I'll briefly mention the fourth one just because of time. Listen to what Paul's saying. If you have an encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, what does he mean by that? Any comfort from love? Well, the language here is a subjective genitive. What does that mean? It means that Paul here is not speaking of a vertical, I'm sorry, a horizontal love. He is not speaking of a love that he has for the people of Philippi, or the affection that the Philippians have for Paul who's in prison. He's speaking of through the way this is grammatically present, the divine love. He's speaking of a love as he describes in the book of Ephesians is so wide, so deep, so long, so high. He gives us those words to prescribe the perfect measurement of love. And he's saying, this love should bring you comfort. What does comfort mean? When we think of the word comfort, we perhaps think of things that we like to eat, you know, comfort food. I love comfort food. We might think of a particular place in the house we like to sit and drink a cup of coffee, or a friend that we want to call and receive encouraging words from. We might think of a place we like to go to get away, or a person that ultimately brings us that comfort. Paul is speaking about comfort in the context of real brokenness, real pain, real poverty, real suffering. The best definition I could find for comfort said this. Comfort is to soothe. I love that word. To soothe in times of affliction, distress, misfortune. Many of you are experiencing distress and misfortune in ways that you never could have seen. You just couldn't have seen what this time of your life would look like. You can't find work, or that which you saved from work for so long is suddenly going away. And nobody knows when it's going to end. And it's scary. Paul is saying that there is a comfort that soothes, that is far deeper and richer than anything else you would seek to find comfort in. And the reason this is so important is because the temptation for us, as Rick Layman likes to say, is to put our security in insecure things. We actually seek to find comfort in things that will kill us. If we could see the in road of the things that we might find comfort in, and the in results of what might happen, we would run. But so many find comfort in looking at images they shouldn't look at. Or taking things they shouldn't take, consuming things that will actually kill. The comfort that we need is given in Christ. It's a comfort that comes from His love. To understand this, I want you to take your Bible or the blue one in front of you in the pure act. And I want you to turn to Matthew 7. Matthew 7 is the sermon on the Mount. It's the greatest sermon ever preached because it was preached by Jesus. Jesus, the prophet, priest, king, our brother, our redeemer, our friend. And as he preached these words, he comes near the conclusion of a sermon. And this is what he says. Chapter 7, Matthew 7. He says, asking it will be given to you. Seek and you will find, knocking, it will be open to you. For everyone who asks or sieves and the one who seeks finds into the one who knocks, it will be open. Now listen to this parable. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone. Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent. If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him. The picture that Jesus is painting here of his father is a picture of a good father. He compares them to an earthly father who though he is what. Evil knows how to give good gifts. If one of my children come to me and they say, Daddy, I'm hungry. And they really are hungry. And they're not asking for just more sugary cereal. I would give them something they need. It's in my heart though it's described as evil. I know what to do. That's a good gift. You would as well. He's saying the father in heaven gives beyond that. The gifts that he gives are beyond what we could even imagine. And they're for us and for our good because he's a good father. If you want to see the gift, he's specifically speaking of take your Bible and turn to Luke 11. Luke 11 records similar words from Christ. Similar things that he taught. And he uses a parable that's very similar to what he used in the Sermon and the Mount. He's been teaching about the Lord's Prayer, what we call it. Because the disciples went to him and said, Lord, teach us to pray. So he gives them the Lord's Prayer, speaks down a little further, and then he gives them this parable again. Verse 9 of chapter 11 of Luke. Jesus says, and I tell you, asking it will be given to you, seeking you will find. Not going to be open to you. For everyone who asks receives the one who seeks finds into the one who knocks it will be open. And here's the parable. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion. If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will the heavenly father, here it is, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's the gift. You might not be able to see this. But his Paul is encouraging the people of Philadelphia to be of one voice. There's a trinitarian structure that's here. It sounds much like his been addiction at the end of 2 Corinthians. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you always. That's what Paul's staying here. He's building this case. One leg of this chair is encouragement in Christ. And there's nothing more encouraging in Christ than his grace. The second leg. It's comfort from his love. It's a subjective genitive. It's a vertical love. It's a divine love. It's the father's love. We're told God demonstrated his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And so week after week after week in this church, we sing of those wounds. We sing of the heart that burst for God's people. We sing of the cross and its power and the reality of the resurrection that he rose. It's gospel and it's powerful. But here we move from encouragement in Christ to comfort from his love. The love of a daddy for his children. To this idea of participation and the spirit. The gift that the daddy gives. To understand that. I want you to go to Romans 8. Romans 8. Verse 14 is where I'm going to start. So beautifully describes the relationship that we have with the Trinity. Here presented is the legs of the stool that we stand on as one. Listen to what Paul says. Verse 14, chapter 8. For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry. Abba. Father. Okay, let's unpack this for just a minute. The spirit has the role of illuminating the hearts and minds of God's children. We were not children who were a little bit sick. Or who misbehaved a little bit. I love when people tell me this. Why don't we have a testimony? You know, I was raised in a Christian home. I didn't really do anything bad. I don't have that, you know, cocaine addiction drug problem that I was ripped out of. I said, oh, I'm so glad for that. But you know, you were still evil. You know, you're still dead. Spiritually, you weren't less sick than someone else. They're like, you have a testimony. You're a testimony is like mine. My heart did not beat for God. Neither did yours. Until the spirit moved. And the illuminating work of the spirit opened my eyes. It opened your eyes. It opened my mind. It opened your mind. It opened my heart. It opened your heart. And it begins to beat. And there's life. That's the work of the spirit. But so often, we see ourselves not as orphans. Not as those who were in a sense laid out bed by bed in an awful, awful orphanage of sin and depravity. But we see ourselves as we're pretty good. We're Americans. We're Texans. We're pretty wealthy. We're pretty good. I grew up in the church. Went to VBS. Went to Canacog. Did Mission Trips. Part of the youth group. No, no. You're an orphan. Needy. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. Desperate. to see that, the response becomes less duty in far more delight. Why would he want me? I don't know. It's his grace. You, who know Christ, are no longer orphans. You are adopted, sons and daughters of the living God wanted. Paul goes on for 16. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and of children then heirs. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. What does it mean? Some of you as children have watched your parents, your inheritance, decline, to reality, isn't it? But is that where you really find your comfort? I hope not. It'll kill you. Your comfort as a saint is in what awaits you after you die. Your comfort isn't a divine certainty that if you know Christ, if you've professed faith in Christ, if you understand what he's done, if the Spirit has illuminated your heart and mind, you're his. You're an heir. You have an inheritance that can never perish, never be spoiled, and never fade. It's yours. What role does the Holy Spirit play? Ephesians Paul tells us he's the guarantee of it. He's keeping it. It can't be lost. And so here in this incredible trinitarian structure and we see something that's very important, it's a relationship. It's a perfect relationship between father, son, and Holy Spirit. Perfect love. Each one, one God, one God. Remember, one God, each one loving the other, doing whatever is necessary that the people of God would know that there is beloved. We are connected to that because of the work of the Spirit. When God moves in His people, something happens. We don't simply go, I'm now a Christian. Thank God, and I can do whatever I want. That's not a sign of a regenerate heart. A heart that says, I have been chosen by God. I'm with Him now. I have the joy of laying down my life for Him. I have the joy of telling Him. I'm yours. I have the joy of giving away everything I have for His sake. When you realize what He's done, you don't go away sad like the rich young ruler. You're more like Sikias. You are changed. That change takes place instantaneously and over time. It's called sanctification. That's why, as I said last week, every time we come to worship, every time we open the word, every time we pray, we ought to have the expectation that our lives are being changed, being made into His image. Not because we will be justified by that change. No, but because of what He's done for us, everything. He who began a good work in you is going to bring it to completion. He promised. So we respond to this grace, to the understanding of our identity with a zeal. And when the zeal isn't there, we know something's wrong. Something's wrong. If I consistently go home, and my wife says, hey, Mark, I'm glad you're home. I love you. I love you too. Something's wrong. Something's wrong. Too many in the church today and too many churches in general have lost their identity. They have forgotten who they are. We need each other. We really do to remind one another of who we are, of who he is, of what he is done, and what he promised to do. Every Sunday, when we close the service, we end with a hymn. We're going to do that right now. When I say that, you start getting restless. So stop doing what you're doing. Don't fold paper. Don't pull out your hymn. Just listen, oftentimes when we sing, there's a big disconnect. Like a team saying, just because I'm wearing blue and gold, we can't be beaten. We sang this song coming back from those games just to remind us really who we were as a team.
We sing each week not to go through the motions simply because that's what you do at church. We sing hymns that have been selected because there's words in them that remind us of who we are and how we should respond to what he has done. Too many in the church today, this church and the church in general are so consumed with preferences and choices they've lost sight of who they really are. I want you to sing. I want you to sing as children shout what they know to be true. They knew it was a pack of pencils. You know the truth of these hymns. You may not have a great voice, that may be true, but sing as a child that's been adopted. An orphan who has had the living God say, your mine. And not only are you mine, but I killed my own that you could be mine. And as your mine, you're going to see him face to face. That's how we sing and that's why we sing. After I close and we stand to sing, sing loud, sing with hearts that so want that zeal for the Lord, ask him to give it to you even in the prayer and then let it out because you are a child of the living God. Father in heaven, we're not playing games, we're not trying to create some type of hoop law, we're not trying to just do a tradition that reminds a team that there should be team spirit. We are proclaiming truth in the very words that we sing, truth of who you are or who we are or what we need. We are proclaiming divine certainty that this is true. No matter what I think or feel or believe, it's true. Spirit, would you even now move in such a way that after we give the final shout, we may say amen, not simply nodding and walking away without being changed but with a deep desire to live in light of who we really are in Christ and whose name we pray. Amen.