Thank you. It is good to be back again. Again, let me just say as I start, thank you so much for everything that you did during the missions conference. It truly was a wonderful week for us missionaries and your hospitality and the food and everything that you did for us, the shopping trip that they took us on. I don't know. Do you realize that that they take us on a shopping trip? You realize that? That was just that was That was almost foreign for me because I'm not one to go to go shop. I'll take my wife shopping and shop for her and the kids, but I'm not one that just jumps up and just go shopping. So that that really was a blessing. And we appreciate everything that you did. Turn to Philippians chapter two tonight. Philippians chapter two. They went deep in the bullpen tonight, pastors out of town, no one else was ready to preach. So, they went deep in the bullpen. So, this is what you get. Deep in the bullpen. So, hang on. Philippians chapter 2. I love the book of Philippians. The book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul. Really, I think what I love most about the book of Philippians is the background of why the book of Philippians was written and the church at Philippi. And as you think about the history of the church of Philippi, as Paul writes this epistle, Paul is not, in so many of his epistles, you'll see in the first one or two verses, the apostle Paul will throw out his apostleship. to show his authority because he's writing a church to correct them on some doctrinal error. That's not happening in Philippi. He doesn't, if you look in the first couple verses of the book of Philippians, he didn't talk about his apostleship because he wasn't writing them to rebuke them where they had gone off the road doctrinally. He's writing to them as a friend, as a partner in ministry. There in chapter 1, in verse 5, he says, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. That word there for fellowship is partnership. Partnership. The believers at Philippi had a partnership with the Apostle Paul. And as you think back, The church at Philippi, think how Paul, do you remember how Paul started the church at Philippi? His first convert, he goes into Philippi and he looks for a synagogue to go teach and to find where the Jews are. And there wasn't a synagogue in Philippi because it was a Roman colony. It was a Roman colony. They were Roman citizens. So there weren't very many Jews there. So there was no synagogue. So he goes down to the riverside, and his first convert down by the riverside is Lydia. Lydia, a seller of purple. She was probably a lady of means. And then think about his other converts there as he visited Philippi to set up a church there. As he's walking back and forth through the city trying to minister to people and to talk to people, he has this young lady following him Remember that one? The young lady followed them everywhere around the city, and Paul had it up to here. And he turns around and he rebukes her. And the Spirit leaves her. And after the Spirit left her, her owners were like, now she's absolutely worthless to us. She can't tell the future. And where did that put him? That put him in the jail. Paul ended up in jail at Philippi. And that night, as they sang and as they prayed, and the doors flew open, and that Philippian jailer grabbed that sword to end his life, because he knew for sure that all the prisoners had escaped. And Paul stops him and says, don't, we're all here. And that night, Paul went to his house, and the Philippian jailer and his whole family was saved that night. So you have the start of a church here at Philippi, you have a jailer, you have a young lady who is possessed, and you have a lady of means, a seller of purple. If anyone were starting a church, those would not be the three people that you would put together to start this body of Christ in Philippi. They were the least likely three people to be put together. But these people came together, and the church there came together and Paul ministered to them, poured his life into them as a partner in ministry, a partner in the Gospel. And Paul is now writing back to them as a friend. And he writes back to them as friends. And he wants to remind them of where their joy comes from. Not a happy-go-lucky, but a joy, an inner spiritual confidence. that God is in control. And because of one reason throughout the whole book of Philippians, one reason we can have spiritual confidence, one reason for this joy in the life of a believer, what Christ Jesus has done for us. That's the one reason. The one reason what Christ has done for us. And the Apostle Paul here, we're going to be in chapter 2. He starts out chapter 2 and he goes down through a list of things that are possible in the body of Christ because of what Christ has done for us. And then he reminds them in verse 5 of chapter 2, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. He reminds them the attitude that Christ Jesus had. And it was that attitude of humility. The attitude of humility. And he goes down in verses 6-11, and he gives a beautiful picture of what Christ has done for us. And he talks about how Christ left, being fully God, He left the splendors of heaven voluntarily to come to earth and become fully man. to fully God, fully man. And He came with one purpose. And that purpose is in verse 8. Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He gave up the splendors of heaven to come to be born as a man, to humble Himself, to die on a cross for us. For us. And the Apostle Paul is reminding them here of what their salvation is. And now look, we're going to be in v. 12-18. Now look at v. 12. And he uses that word in v. 12. To start v. 12, he says, Wherefore, my beloved? Wherefore? Reminding them the picture that I just gave you of what Christ has done for us. Because of that, Because of what Christ has done for us, He says, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the Word of Life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain." Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy and rejoice with me." The Apostle Paul here, after giving this picture of what Christ has done, he works into, and I'm going to give you three points, but we're not going to hit all three points tonight because it's already almost time. But the three points Or the three points are going to be the what of sanctification, the how of sanctification, and the why of sanctification. And we don't have time to hit all three of those points tonight. So, we're not going to spend much time on what is the what of sanctification. The what is verses 12 and 13. And we see in verses 12 and 13, the Apostle Paul lays out the sanctification process. He wants these Philippian believers to understand the process that they go through as believers to become mature in the faith. And the gist of verses 12 and 13 is this, God has a part in our sanctification and we have a part in our sanctification. And God's part and our part work together to mature us in the faith. To make us more Christ-like. That's the what of sanctification. Now the how of sanctification. Look at verse 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings. Now, the Apostle Paul, he's talking about the sanctification process in 12 and 13. He describes it for us. And then in 14, he says this, do all things. Well, what are what are what are all things? What are all these things that we do? All things here refers to everything pertaining to our sanctification. Everything pertaining to our maturity process that we go through as believers. And he says, do all things without murmurings and disputings. Two interesting words we have there. And this is the how, or if you will, the attitude of sanctification. What should our attitude be as we go through this maturing process to become more Christ-like? He uses two very interesting words, murmurings and disputings. These two words go hand in hand together. Murmurings is an onomatopoeia word. It's a guttural sound. It's a rrrrr. Now we all know how to murmur, don't we? We've all been there, haven't we? I know I have. I was there for a year. When the Lord had to convince me over the course of a year that he wanted a 42-year-old guy with three kids that were, two were in teenage years, one almost there, to go to a foreign country and be a missionary. I had a lot of these moments. But we get those moments in our life, don't we? And we can all think of situations or examples or situations or circumstances that come into our lives And our first emotional reaction when they happen to us is what? Right? We stiffen our back up and that's our emotional response, our knee-jerk reaction. And then, that's our emotional response. Then he uses this word disputings. That's the intellectual response that we have, the emotional and the intellectual. The intellectual response isn't one that we immediately snap to. Some of us quicker than others. But it's that emotional response that stiffens us up. But then it's that disputing, that intellectual response that after we go home, after that circumstances hit us, and we start to relax and cool down a little bit. And then we start to run through our mind. And the first thing that comes into our mind is, This isn't fair. This just isn't fair. And then after we go through that response of this isn't fair, then we start to list off all the reasons why this isn't fair. Well, I'm too old. My kids need me. All the different reasons that we come up with Why this circumstances shouldn't be happening to us. Whatever that may be. Good or bad. And we get this intellectual response. Let me ask you a question. our emotional and our intellectual response as we bristle and we come up with reasons why this should not be happening to us. At the very root of both of these responses, at the very root of both of them, what are they? They're complaints against God. We're complaining to God. Why did you let this happen to me? Why did you put me in this spot? Why did you put me in this place? And we argue with God why this isn't fair. And the Apostle Paul here, as he's walking the Philippian believers through this sanctification process, he says to them, do all things without murmurings and disputings, without complaining against God, without arguing with God why He put you where He put you for that time in your life. Don't do it, Paul says. Now think of Paul. If anyone had reason to murmur and dispute, it was Paul. Think what Paul went through in his life. And this man is writing to his spiritual partners in the Gospel. And he says to them, do it without murmuring disputing. Where was Paul when he wrote this to them? Prison. House arrest. He was in Rome. Chained to a Roman guard. Paul tells us in chapter 1, he wasn't sure what the outcome of his imprisonment was going to be. Whether he was going to make it out alive, or if he was going to get to meet his Lord. And Paul had every right, as we say, to murmur and dispute. But look what he says to the Philippian believers. Go back to verse 12 of chapter 1. Remembering where Paul is and what's happening to him. Look what he wrote to them earlier in the letter. Chapter 1, verse 12. But I would you should understand brethren. Okay? Because the Philippian believers, they knew where Paul was. They had sent Epaphroditus to help take care of Paul while he was in jail in Rome. To take a gift to him. To find out if he was doing okay. To send word back to the Philippian believers of how Paul was doing. And the Apostle Paul says, but I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel. What did the Apostle Paul tell him? I know you're worried about me. I know you want what's best for me. And I know if you could remove me from this situation, you would remove me from it. Because you love me. And you want what's best for me. But I'm telling you, Philippian believers, partners in the Gospel, I'm telling you, don't worry. There's something bigger happening here in Rome. Because I'm sitting in this jail, the Gospel is going forth. Because God put me in this circumstance, in this position, for this time, the Gospel is being furthered. That's how the Apostle Paul could say to the Philippian believers in chapter 2, do all of these things without murmurings and disputings, because Paul knew what the bigger picture was. Paul knew, I may be going through some horrible hardship, I may be going through something that's not very comfortable, but the gospel is going forth. Look what he says later on in chapter 1. You go down to verse 14. And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ, even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the Gospel. What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." Now these men that were out there preaching, that were waxing bold to preach now that Paul was in jail, they were not. Paul is not saying here, it doesn't matter how you preach Christ, just preach Christ. These men were not preaching bad doctrine. He says they were preaching out of strife and envy. These were men that wanted their ministry to go somewhere and to grow and to be large. And they figured out, if we can just get rid of that Apostle Paul, he'll make my ministry so much easier. And I can convince more people to come to my church. They weren't out there preaching a false doctrine. They were preaching with the wrong motives. and preaching out of envy and strife, hoping that by making Paul to suffer more, that would take the heat off of them and give them bigger ministry opportunities to do what they wanted to do in ministry. And Paul says, even if it puts me in a worse spot, if it makes my imprisonment worse, who cares? Christ is being preached right now in the city of Rome. All over. And people are hearing the Gospel. And Paul says, I am willing to go through whatever it is you want me to go through, Lord, for the furtherance of the Gospel. And Paul reminds these Philippian believers, do this, go through this maturing process, go through these circumstances without murmurings and disputings. And he's going to remind them here in the next verse. The other reason we do this, outside of these four walls, there's a group of people that is watching us called the unsaved. Do you know that? Did you know that they watch us? They watch you at your place of employment. I used to work out in the secular world, if you want to call it that. And they found out that I was a Christian. And then when they find out that you're a Christian, They look at you just a little different. And they watch you. One of the secular places I used to work, one of the gentlemen that used to be in our meetings didn't have the nicest of languages sometimes during certain circumstances. And I'd only been on the job for maybe a week and a half or two weeks. And we were in a meeting. And this gentleman let out three or four sentences of nice, colorful language. And after the meeting was over, myself, this gentleman, we were in my boss's office. And my boss looked at that gentleman and it was a lady and she said to him, you can't talk like that anymore in those meetings because Brad's here now. They looked at me differently. And they watched me. They watch you if they know at your place of employment that you're saved and a Christian. Why do they watch you? Because they want to see if you're going to act any different than they act. And when things come into our lives, when circumstances come into our lives, and the way we react to them, they watch us, and they look at us, and they go, one of two things. One, puff. It doesn't act any different than I would act in that situation. I guess I don't need what they have. Or they look at us and they go, how did they do that? How did they go through that? and still come into the office every morning and they're in a good mood. How do they go through that and their whole life isn't just falling apart? They're not having a nervous breakdown. Paul knew this. And he said to these Philippian believers, do these things, go through these circumstances without murmuring and disputing. Because there's an unsaved world that's watching us. And now we get to verses 15-18. And we have the why of sanctification. Why do we go through this process of becoming mature in the faith? Why do we go through this process of becoming more Christ-like? Well, the first one is for ourselves. for ourselves. Look at what the Apostle Paul says. That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke. The Apostle Paul reminds the Philippian believers here of who they are. He uses this phrase, the sons of God. He reminds them, as he has in different places throughout this book, he reminds them of where their citizenship is. See, Philippi, we said, was a Roman colony. If anyone knew what it was to be a good citizen, it was a Roman citizen. They were loyal. They were faithful to their Caesar. They knew what it was to be a good citizen. And the Apostle Paul reminds the Philippian believers here, he calls them the sons of God. He reminds them where their citizenship lies. And these Philippian believers, that would have created a picture in their mind, that phrase. So they would have known exactly what the Apostle Paul was talking about. And he talks here and he says that ye may be blameless and harmless. Speaking of that day when we will be presented and our salvation will be glorification. And he says to them to be blameless, without defect or blemish. Has the same idea of the word that he used back in chapter one of sincere. Something to be held up to the sunlight and see any imperfection as the sunlight comes through that object. It would show up the dark spots of those imperfections. And he says, be blameless, without defect. He uses that word harmless, which carries with it the idea of purifying water or metal. Of purity. So Paul reminds these Philippian believers, why do we go through this process? We go through this process so that someday we might be presented to the Lord spotless and without rebuke. So go through this process without murmuring and disputing. Then the second reason we go through this process is for the unsaved. Look what he says here in v. 15, for the unsaved. He reminds them where they are. He says, "...in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the Word of Life." Why do we go through the sanctification process? Why should we do it with the attitude of no disputing, no murmuring? for the unsaved world. And the Apostle Paul reminds them, look, you're in the midst of this crooked and perverse nation. But while you're here, while you're in the midst of this, what are you doing? He reminds them, among whom ye shine as light in the world. And we've all heard that before. Matthew 5. Salt of the earth. Light of the world. Let our good works shine. that they may see our Heavenly Father, which is in heaven." So why do we go through this process? For others. For the unsaved. See, the Lord didn't put this plan together and the minute that we get saved, we're taken up to heaven immediately. And that's it. We're done. We're good. No. John chapter 17. John chapter 17, as the Lord prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He goes through and He prays, and He starts to pray for those that were going to be left behind. And He says there in verse 14 of John chapter 17, I have given them Thy Word, and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy Word is truth." See, the Lord even prayed the night before He went to the cross. He prayed, don't take them out of the world. but keep them, sanctify them. I've given them thy word, and thy word is truth." And he says, don't take them out of the world. If he took us out of the world, how would all the others hear and know? That's His plan. That's His great commission. We're here to go out and to share the Gospel with the unsaved. Not to leave the world and be done with it. The Apostle Paul reminds them here, you're in the midst of this, but while you're in the midst of it, you are shining as lights unto the world. and not only shining as lights in the world, look what he says in verse 16, holding forth the word of life. The word there for holding forth has the idea that you stand there and you hold it out so someone can take it. It's not the idea of I'm going to stand and I'm going to defend them. Yes, we ought to defend truth. We ought to defend the Bible. But we ought also to stand and to hold out the Word of Truth to an unsaved world, so that they may take it, so that they can see it in action. And he says, holding forth the Word of Life, Why do we go through this? We go through this for ourselves. We go through it for the unsaved. And lastly, we go through it for other believers. For other believers. Look what the Apostle Paul tells them here. That I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all." What did the Apostle Paul tell him? The Apostle Paul said to him, please stay strong. Please fight the good fight. Please hold fast so that someday When we all get to heaven and I am able to present You to my Lord as I poured my life into You, oh, please, let me be able to do that with rejoicing. This is discipleship right here. That's what Paul's talking about. Paul in v. 16-17 is talking about discipleship. See, as we go through our sanctification process, there are other believers all over the body of Christ right here that are going through the same process. It's just we're all in different stages of that process. And those that are farther along in the process are supposed to circle back around to the ones that are at the start of the process and come alongside them and help them get to the next step, the next stage. And that's exactly what the Apostle Paul did when he said there in verse 5 of chapter 1, your fellowship in the Gospel, that's exactly what he was talking about. We are partners together. You are my converts. I have poured my life into you. He tells them in chapter 1 when He is, I'm not sure what the outcome is going to be. He says to them here, for I am in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Verse 24, nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Do you realize what the Apostle Paul just told the Philippian believers? It is far better for me if this imprisonment of mine ends with me getting to meet my Lord. Oh, so much better. But for me to remain is more needful for you. And if it's more needful for you, I'm willing to stay here if that's what the Lord wants. Do we have someone in our life like that? Is there someone in our life that we could look at and say, it's more needful for me to stay here because you need me. Do we have someone in our life like that? Go either direction. Do we have someone in our life that's willing to say that about us? Do we have a mentor in the faith that is helping us to mature? Or do we have a less mature believer on the other side of us that we're willing to say, Lord, if you want me, right here, because it is more needful for them that I'm here. We have a supporting church, and their whole Their whole ministry, I tell you what, it's one of those ministries where when you go there and you visit, you walk away so refreshed, so built up. It is their whole concept of ministry can be described in one word. Discipleship. Discipleship. If you go to that church on a Wednesday night, they put on, I don't remember how many years ago, they put on a new auditorium. And the new auditorium is connected by a vestibule or whatever, lobby, that's a good word for it, lobby. Their lobby connects the other buildings to the auditorium. And when they built that lobby to connect all three of those buildings together, they created it. And that lobby, all over their church lobby, are these little tables that have two chairs next to them. And there's probably 30 or 40 tables in that lobby. And then over on the one side of the lobby are these two glass doors. And they step out onto an outside patio area. And there are probably about 20 more of these little tables with two seats. And if you go to that ministry on a Wednesday night, and you walk in the back door of that church, and you walk into that lobby, do you know what you see? There are anywhere from 30 to 35 individual groups, two people, and discipleship is happening. One more mature believer that has taken a young believer under their wing and they come there to that church lobby on Wednesday nights and they sit there and they disciple each other. That is my hope and prayer for Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. My hope and prayer is the Lord gives us that ministry mentality in Saskatoon, where believer on believer is discipling each other and helping each other to mature in the faith. And look what the Apostle Paul says. Look, someday in the day of Christ, I will have the opportunity to present you Please let me rejoice in that day when I present you. So I haven't labored in vain. I haven't poured myself into your life in vain. That's part of our sanctification process. It's pouring ourselves into another believer. Why do we do this? We do it for ourselves so that we can be presented spotless and blameless. We do it for the unsaved so that we can present the gospel. And we do it for each other, for other believers, to be able to pour ourselves into each other so that we're all maturing in the faith. I love this book of Philippians. This is ministry right here. This is what ministry is all about. It's that discipleship. While we're maturing, we're also discipling each other. Let's pray.