Our scripture reading will continue through Galatians in our Holy Bible, as Malachi pointed out to us this morning. Chapter two, verses 11 through 21. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because by works of the law, no one will be justified. But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not. For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law, I die to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. All right, turn to Philippians chapter one and join me, please, as we begin our journey through the book of Philippians, which will not end until we are done with the last verse of the last chapter. I'm excited about it. But just by way of review, Little pop quiz, where, well, let's start with here. Who founded the church at Philippi? The Apostle Paul, right. What chapter in the book of Acts records that account for us? Who remembers? Chapter 16, good. And last but not least, who were the three people that were saved under Paul's ministry in the town of Philippi? Who remembers? Lydia's one, the slave girl, demon-possessed slave girl, and the Philippian jailer. Very good. All right. And of course, their numbers would grow as time went on. We're gonna start today by talking about a life to be proud of, living a life to be proud of. I want to start by sort of billboarding for you what we're going to be talking about today. Before we even read the passage, this is kind of the points we're going to be looking at. Oh, come on now. Y'all bear with me for a second. Turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter one, and we will start reading together. I'll go ahead and do that first. So go up two more slides, brother. Appreciate it. There we go. Chapter one and verse one. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who were at Philippi with the overseers and deacons. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 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 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. All right, this is what we're going to be talking about today. We're going to look at these three main points. Living a life to be proud of. I believe, and you know, just to give you a heads up, the way we're going to be going through the book of Philippians is going to be more similar to what we're doing in the evening with Mark than what we've been doing. In Mark, we started in chapter 1. We went through chapter one, we went through chapter two, we went through chapter three, now we're in chapter four. This is what we're gonna be doing, following line by line, trying to follow Paul's argument through the book of Philippians. That's what we're gonna be trying to do. Today, I believe these 11 verses teach us that living a life to be proud of begins by partnering with God, continues through confidence in God, and is accomplished through being transformed by God. However, not to get you off topic, but I forgot to do something earlier. Something that was requested of me. I'm not gonna sing, but today is Katie's birthday. How old are you, Katie? She's 13. 13 going on 17, right? We're proud of you, Katie. We're proud of you. We love you. Happy birthday. All right. Living a life to be proud of begins by partnering with God. Begins by partnering with God. I wanna show you a couple of verses that sort of get at the heart of this. In verse five, first of all, Paul, can you just feel the pride oozing out of this? I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. That means every time he remembers these people, he is thanking God. And you might say, well, how is that any different? Have you read 1 Corinthians? Have you read Galatians? Those churches had massive problems. And Paul, man, he commenced them, but boy, he gets after them too. In Philippians, from the get-go, the love is just oozing out of Paul. He is gonna basically tell them, in fact, a lot of commentators agree, that the Philippians, of all the churches that Paul wrote to, were the most mature bunch. Maybe the Ephesian church, kind of a competition going between those two, between the Ephesians and the Philippians. But this is a mature bunch. He doesn't get onto them a lot. He's proud of them. He tells them, I'm so proud of you. Every time I think about you, I am giving thanks. Verse five tells us why he was always praying and giving thanks to God with joy. Verse five gives us a hint. Because, and for those of us I bolded some words. I wanted you to get them, okay? I wanted you to get it. Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. When was that first day? When he met Lydia at the riverbank. That was the first day. And from that day on, they were partners with Paul in the gospel. What does that mean to be a partner? Well, I think verse seven sort of Explains it for us. It is right for me to feel this way about you all. How does he feel? He is he is sure that the one who began a good work in them would bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus It's right for me to feel this way because I hold you in my heart for you are all there's another Partnership type word you are partakers. In fact, they have the same root word you are partners with me in grace Now, how were they partners? I? It tells us in his imprisonment and in his defense and confirmation of the gospel. You see, the Philippians partnered with Paul in the gospel from the first day. Why was that? If you recall, the three people that we saw saved, they weren't all saved on the first day because we know the slave girl was slaved, it says, after many days. But Lydia, a God-fearing woman who just didn't know about Jesus yet, A slave girl who was demon possessed and used like a ventriloquist by this demon to make money for her owners. And this G.I. Joe, this tough guy jailer, and his family. So all these families being changed, and guess what happened? Why were they partners with God in the gospel? Why were they partners with Paul in the gospel? Because their lives were changed. Lydia was a God-fearing woman who had been looking for Messiah, and she found Him. The slave girl was demon-possessed, and Paul exercised that demon. That's with an O, not an E. He didn't put her on a treadmill. He sent the demon out of her. That'll change your life, won't it? The Philippian jailer, he goes from almost falling on his sword to eternal life. That's a life changed, isn't it? They went from pagans worshiping wood, stone, and emperors to worshiping the invisible God and his son, the crucified, risen Messiah. Their sins had been forgiven and they were really, truly changed. You know, you can't go online or watch TV without seeing commercials, even online now, you can't even watch YouTube without seeing commercials anymore, unless you pay for YouTube Red, I'm not doing it. But they want you to, there's these little commercials come up, you take this supplement, Your life will be changed. Are you overweight? Take this. Your life will be changed. Do you have trouble remembering things? Boy, have I got the system for you. There are systems for every conceivable problem, and every one of them promises that your life will be changed. My friends, there's one thing that truly changes your life, and that is Jesus Christ and the gospel. And because their lives had been changed, they partnered with Paul and what he was doing. What was Paul doing? He left Philippi, he went someplace else. And when he left, they said, we wanna be partners with you in your missionary journey. They didn't go with him, but they sent money. Just real quick, look at chapter four in verse 16. He says there in chapter four in verse 60, well, I'll start in verse 14. It was kind of you to share my trouble. You Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, you remember that's where Philippi was. When I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me. See how important this is for Paul? No church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica, that was the next town that he went to. You sent me help for my needs once and again. They supported Paul and Timothy financially. They visited Paul in prison, but most importantly, and I really do believe this was Paul's main point, they partnered with him in continuing to proclaim the gospel in Philippi. They didn't receive the treasure and then keep it to themselves. They didn't receive the vaccine and then tell nobody about it. They gave out the vaccine. They told people about the medicine, about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, this is where I think it applies to you. Nothing that I'm gonna say for the rest of this message will really make sense to you if you haven't already partnered with God through Jesus Christ. That is the first step when it comes to living a life to be proud of. I don't listen to a lot of country music, but I went through a phase. That phase happened to coincide when country was actually good. Oh, no, I didn't say that out loud, did I? But when I was in college, I didn't listen to country music until I went to college, and that's because I got a summer job where my boss, I had to get a ride with him, I didn't have a car, and he listened to country every day. I got used to two things that summer, three things really. I got used to really hard work, I got used to country music, and I got used to the smell of a spit cup. Because he had all three going at the same time. One of my favorite country songs still is a Montgomery Gentry song called Something to be Proud of. Maybe you know the song, maybe you don't. And it's a really neat song. And there are lots of things that are listed in the song that are to be, we can be proud of them. Hard work, raising a family, those types of things. The kind of things you find in country music, right? However, Montgomery Gentry's standard and Paul's standard are a little different. Because I wanna take you forward a little bit. Look at verse six, look at it. I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the what? the day of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 11, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through, or actually verse 10, so that you may approve what is excellent and be pure and blameless for the what? The day of Christ. You see, you can live a life worthy to be proud of by man's standard without Jesus Christ. But a day is coming when you will stand before Jesus Christ. That's what the day of Christ is talking about. It's talking about judgment day. And it is then, Jesus alone will decide whether or not you lived a life worthy of being proud of. And the benchmark, the foundation, begins with being a partner with God. How does one partner with God in the gospel? This should go without saying, but I'm gonna say it just to be absolutely clear. It begins by repenting of your sins and trusting Christ. It starts there. It starts there. But it continues through confidence in God. We just read this verse, 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. I read this week, genuine spiritual progress, and that is what we're looking for, right? That is what we're looking for. Nobody, you know, you are glad if you have had children, you are glad for your children, no matter what the case may be, but no one would want for their child to be a dwarf, for example. Is that fair to say? If that happens and that's God's sovereign will for you, then you rejoice in that. But what we want for our children is to grow and to progress. God wants the same thing for his children. Growth and progress, I read this, genuine spiritual progress, listen, is rooted in what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do. So many times we think of our spiritual progress and we relate it to how we progress in the things of the world. If I wanna get better at basketball, I go shoot baskets. If I wanna learn welding, I go to welding school, I apply myself to that. I learn the tricks of the trade. If I wanna learn this or that, applied physics, mathematics, I open books, I go to teachers, I apply myself, I work hard. That's only partly true when it comes to spiritual progress, because any spiritual progress that I have made, ever will make, is because of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do in my life. Verse six says, I am sure of this, that he who began his life, a good work in you. You might say, in answer to the question, when did you start, when did you get on the path towards God? What would be a normal answer for that? The day I what? The day I got saved, the day I trusted Christ, the day I repented of my sins, the day I believed the gospel, something like that. That's the day my life changed, and the day I started following Christ. But who really started that? Verse six says that he began the good work that is in you. Who will finish it? I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. Guys, this is a simple point, but I think one worth mentioning. If on the day that you stand before Christ at his judgment seat, if you have lived a life worth being proud of, it is not because of anything that you have done. It is because of everything that God has done. And what this does in us is it causes us to fall to our knees today and give our lives to Him today for the strength that we need to live today, to overcome our sins today. Because if we're not doing that today, He won't bring it to completion because there is some kind of symbiotic relationship here between what God is doing and what we're doing. but it starts with a recognition that it is not me, it's God that's doing it. Isaiah 59 one says, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. If God wants to do something, he will do it, right? Consider the 10 plagues of Egypt. Moses comes to Pharaoh and says, all right, let my people go. No. All right, plague one. Let my people go. No. Plague two. Let my people go. No, plague three, you know how it goes. We get to the 10th plague and there's the slaughter of the children. Let me ask you a question. Did Pharaoh really have a choice whether or not to let God's people go? God told Moses, in fact, He promised to Abraham 400 years before that, I will send my people, they will be slaves in a foreign land, and I will draw them out. What God says He will do, you can best be certain He will do it. Christ's life, death, and especially His resurrection is another certain proof of this. Christ dies, they lay Him in a borrowed tomb. The Jews, they say, We want a guard. They got a guard. We want a seal. They got a seal. Did that stop Jesus? Not in the least. Why? Because what God says He's going to do, He will do. You ever read Revelation? You know how it ends, right? God wins. The devil loses. How do we know that's going to happen? Because what God says He will do, He will do. This should give you encouragement, because God has said some pretty awesome things about what he's gonna do for you. We won't get into all of it today. We'll get into that as we go through the rest of Philippians, but you can rest assured that he who began a good work in you, and in you, and in you, He will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Don't be confident in yourself. Be confident in Christ. We have young children, so we watch Disney and other cartoons. I'm sure one day I'll miss it. We like it. But do you know what we hear over and over in those cartoons and we have to constantly remind our kids? They hear the message, believe in yourself. Have confidence in yourself. Love yourself. Forgive yourself. Those things couldn't be more wrong. Have confidence in God. Believe in Jesus. Love him and others. That's the Bible's message. Our confidence is not in ourselves. Our confidence is in Christ. There is a world, however, that says, I'm going to be confident in myself. That's fine for now. What will happen at the day of Jesus Christ? You don't want to be in that category. Lastly, living a life to be proud of is accomplished through being transformed by God. I wanna show you a couple of key verses. Verses nine through 11 say, 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. Now that's a mouthful, isn't it? It's a mouthful to try to get through, We could spend two weeks just on those three verses, but we won't do it. Number one, what does it mean to be transformed by God? I believe that at the judgment seat of Christ, when you're standing before him, which you will certainly do, unless you're an unbeliever, in which case you will stand before the great white throne of God, he will judge you based on your works and he will cast you into hell. If you're a Christian, you will not stand before the great white throne of judgment. You will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And on what basis will He judge you? Well, thank goodness, He won't judge us based on our works. He will judge us based on the works of Christ. And these are some of the things that he's trying to do in you and me. Verse six says that he will bring it to completion, that good work. What does that look like? What would it mean at the end of your life to be a good Christian? Would you be better than you are today? I hope so. We should always be changing, becoming more like Jesus every day. Paul tells us some things that it would mean. In verse nine, It's about, in fact, yeah, in verse nine, it's about surpassing love. He says, it is my prayer, it is my prayer. This is something Paul the Apostle, inspired by the Holy Spirit, was praying for these people. But just a hint, if you've ever wondered how you can pray for your friends and family, just pray this verse. If it's good enough for Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, then it's good enough for us. Amen? He says, it is my prayer that your love may abound. His desire for the Philippians was that they would experience surpassing love. Agape love. Y'all know what this agape love means, right? Y'all have heard this a million times. This is different than romantic love. This is different even than brotherly love. This is godly love. This is self-sacrificial love. This is love that desires what's best for someone else, even if it costs me something. Right? There are many directions that agape love can take us. We could talk about sacrifice, we could talk about humility, we could talk about suffering, but this passage points in one direction. Look at what it says. It is my prayer that your love may abound, may surpass more and more. So he wants them to love better, he wants them to love more, but he wants them to love tempered by something. What is that? He tells us. With what? Knowledge and all discernment. knowledge and all discernment. You see, this love is not all emotion or even primarily emotion in this country. We think of love, we think of Hallmark cards, Lifetime movies, sappy stuff. That is not what this word means. This word means a man dying on a cross for people that hated him. That's what love is. Love means I'm willing at my own expense to do what's best for you. Think the good Samaritan. He sees somebody dying in a ditch and he takes care of them at his own expense. That's love. That's not emotion. That's sacrifice, that's humility. And this kind of love, Paul said, was to be guided along the guardrails of knowledge and discernment. I want you to think about something. What is knowledge without love? Arrogance, right? We have this word for people, know-it-alls. Sometimes I'm a know-it-all, sometimes you're a know-it-all. Knowledge without love is arrogance. But love without knowledge is directionless. It can go in a lot of directions it shouldn't go. It ends up going places Jesus himself would not go. There's a conference that's gonna be held in a couple of weeks. I'd encourage you to go and check it out for yourself. Google it. It's called the Revoice Conference. Revoice. And here's what it is. It's put on by professing Christians. No doubt many of them actually are Christians. But the Revoice Conference seeks to reimagine what it means to be a gay Christian. And see, this is one of the topics, one of the workshops, Redeeming Queer Culture. Now listen, maybe you don't want to Google it. Here's what I'm saying. These people who are putting on this conference, I believe their hearts are coming from a good space, right? They love gay people. Should we love gay people? Does God love gay people? Yes. So we should love gay people. This is not hard. But our love has to be tempered by some things, doesn't it? Knowledge. Knowledge of what? This also is an easy one. Knowledge of the Bible. Knowledge of the Holy Word of God, as Malachi says. The Holy Bible. Tempered by knowledge. We have to know what the Bible says. We have to know what God is like. We have to know what the true way of salvation is. If all you have is love, you will go off the rails. You have to have knowledge. You have to have discernment. That is, knowing what to do with the knowledge that you have. This is why listening to elders is always a good idea. I like to think of it this way. Where does knowledge come from? The Word of God. Where does discernment come from? Obeying the Word of God. It's not enough to know it. The Pharisees knew it, did they not? They didn't obey it. So they had no discernment. They had no wisdom. Paul talks about surpassing love, he talks about supplementary knowledge and discernment, and he talks about a spotless conclusion. So that, what is the point of this love and knowledge and discernment? There's a point to it, verse 10 is the point. 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. I can't believe I'm gonna try to summarize this in two or three minutes, but I'm gonna try. Approve what is excellent. Paul will go on in Philippians chapter four in verse eight to talk about this in a little more detail. Some of you have this verse memorized. Finally, brothers, whatever is True, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any, and here's the word again, excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Paul says that when you love well, and when you love guided by knowledge of and discernment through the word of God, you will approve things that are excellent. I just park here for a second. What does your life, what do your choices tell you about the things you approve? The music you listen to, the things you watch, the way you spend your money, the way you treat other people, the way you talk to your spouse, the way children you obey or don't, your parents, the way you honor your father and mother. Think about your life. Would you say your life is marked by approving things that are excellent according to Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8? He also says that you'll be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness. I am so glad that in this thing we call salvation, I don't carry my own righteousness anymore. Just like a brand new suit of clothes, I have received Christ's righteousness. And so have you. He took off your dirty, sinful clothes and gave you his own bright, shining suit. I guess he didn't wear a suit, a robe of righteousness. And he took on your shabby, dirty sin. And he nailed it to a cross. And then he buried it in a tomb. And when he got out of that tomb, that sin stayed in there, he didn't. That's where your sin is now. It's nailed to a cross. It's buried in a tomb. And God, this verse six thing that he's doing, he is completing in you. What is he completing? He's making you more pure. He's making you more blameless. He is filling you, even now, with the fruit of righteousness. Think about what it means to be righteous. To be righteous is to be like God. Man, I wanna be more righteous in five years than I am today. And I hope that I'm more righteous now than I was five years ago. I hope when I'm an old man approaching death's door, I'll be more righteous yet even then. But here's the beauty of it. No matter what happens, No matter how sinful I may be, even on my day's death, the moment I am translated into glory, Christ takes all of my sin and throws it as far as the east is from the west, and He completes in me that good work. He completes in you that good work. He fills you completely with His righteousness. That's what He does. And why does He do all that? Look at verse 11. to the praise and glory of God. That sort of brings it back to the beginning, right? It's not about you. It's not about what you do. It's not about the choices you make. Ultimately, it's about God and what God is doing in you. It's about what God has done. It's about what he is doing. It's about what he will do. The question is, are we gonna be partners in this or are we gonna fight him every step of the way? You can choose to fight him. I wouldn't recommend it. I don't think God's ever lost a wrestling match. Here's some questions I want to end with. Are you living a life to be proud of? Maybe by the world standards you are. You've raised good kids, you pay your taxes, you've got a good job, you treat your wife with dignity, you treat your husband with dignity, you respect your parents, you salute the flag. But the reality is judgment day is coming. And if you're unsaved, it will be impossible for you to stand before the judge and say you were proud of the life that you lived. Because there is one standard at that point in time, and that standard is Jesus Christ. Outside of faith, Hebrews 11 says, it is impossible to please God. When you are standing before Christ, if you are outside of Christ, the only thing you will feel is profound shame and profound regret and profound fear because you never began a partnership with God. So for you today, the only appropriate response is when we're singing, even right now, before we're singing, I don't care when you do it, the only appropriate response is for you to repent of your sins and believe the gospel. What is that? Jesus died so that you might be saved by forgiving you of your sins. Your wicked life is an offense to God most high and he will not forgive you unless you turn to him in humility and trust in the saving work of Jesus Christ. Here's the beauty. Do that and God promises to save you. He promises to forgive you of your sins. Why? Because he loves you. He loves you more than you love yourself. He will wash your sin clean and place you in the garden of His righteousness where you will begin to produce the fruit of the Spirit. If, however, you're saved, there are several things, several ways that you might respond to a message like today. Number one, you might praise the God who began a good work in you. That's something worthy of praising God for, isn't it? Man, where would we be if God hadn't saved me when I was six years old? I might be just The worst fellow you could imagine. About to bust the gates of hell wide open before I die. But God began a good work in me when I was almost six years old. He's continuing that good work and he will complete it one day. I praise God for that. Number two, a second response might be, hey, purpose to partnership, to partner in that work. Purpose. You. Be a partner with God. A couple of weeks ago, I gave out a bunch of these cards. There's still more in the table out there. I've been handing them out every week. Where do you go to church? Here. Can I invite you to my church? Would you like to know more about Jesus? Look on the back. Go to that website. I think a lot of us think that we're partners with God because we believe the Bible and we live pretty good lives and we treat people the way God wants us to treat them, but we're not really partnering in the gospel. Guys, I'm challenging you. Partner with me in the gospel. Third way, you might pursue a life of transformation. It's not enough. Just to coast. Let your love abound. Be filled with knowledge and discernment so that you may approve what is excellent for the day of Jesus Christ. Guys. What position are you in? Saved? Unsaved? How are you gonna respond to this message today? Father in heaven, we thank you for the gift of the word of God. We thank you for the love that you shared with us in Christ. We thank you that you began a good work in us, that you're continuing that good work and that you will complete it. Help us to praise you, to pursue you, to partner with you in Jesus' name. Amen. If you need to come down and pray, I'll be down here for you.