Trish and I found ourselves in Assisi, and if you've heard that word, Assisi, that name of that town, you would be thinking, well, you're probably there to see Francis, at least his tomb. We were travelling around Italy, and yes, we did go into the cathedral there, and we were going down to see some of the things. Whenever I take Trish places with me, I take her and there's always one part of the trip where we're standing in front of some dead guy, some grave, some tomb. Trish just loves it. You can just ask her later. She just loves it. She loves my morbid fascination with cemeteries and dead people, history. And I do love history. And we were going down, and you're going to find something about Patricia's sense of humour in this, because we were going down into the bottom, right into the basement area of the cathedral, where they have this tomb. But there was incredible superstition around it, around the Roman Catholic superstition involved with this tomb, where they were saying, if you put your hand on this tomb as you go past it and pray, God will request your prayer. He will give you your prayer. And so I said to Trish, we are not part of that, as if I needed to warn her, okay? But I did, you know, it's as if only I know stuff and everybody else has to know what I know. So I said to Trish, you know, don't, don't put your hand near this tomb. We're not superstitious, as if she needed to be told. And so we walked down and Tricia's sense of humour came into play as she was walking in front of me and her finger went like about an inch away. And she was walking along and she was looking at me and she was saying, I want a horsey, I want a horsey, I want a horsey. And so that's Tricia's sense of humour. and I have taken her all over the place and standing in front of dead people. One of the places that I most loved and she had no humour at this place because this place she was actually quite amazed as well. In the middle of London is this cemetery and it's called Bunhill Fields. I think I may have mentioned it once before but Bunhill Fields is one of my favourite places in the world to go. I love being able to stand in Bunhill Fields. It is a cemetery. It's full of thousands and thousands of graves. And some of my favourite people are there. And I go there and I read from these people. I read out their words. There is John Bunyan, and we read from Pilgrim's Progress. There's John Owen, and I read from Glory of Christ. There's John Gill, and I read from his commentary in the whole Bible. There is Isaac Watts, I read when I surveyed the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died. All of these people are buried in this one cemetery. And all these people have made big impact on my life. I want to be like many of these people. And I stand there and I'm amazed. It's one of my favourite places in the world to be, as I've said. And Trish was amazed too. It was really cool. We want to imitate some of these people. And they're there. Why are they in this graveyard? Because most people were buried. We're talking about Puritans. We're talking about the 17th century. Most people were buried in church graveyards. And the reason they're buried all in this graveyard is because they are what are called non-conformists. They were not willing to conform to the state church dictates. They only wanted to conform to their convictions in the word of God. And so they were not allowed a church burial. Thousands of Puritans were buried in Bunhill Fields because they were not allowed to be buried at a church. They would not conform to this world's dictates. They would only conform to scripture. And you know, this whole point is the point of the text that we're coming to today. living according to Christ-focused, not living according to this world's focus, to conform to Christ, not to conform to this world. And I'm standing in the middle of a whole heap of people that were like that, that gave me a great example. The Puritans were people who were living contrary to the world, men and women who were living according to their future destiny, not according to this world now. And they did all that they could to keep the church focused on the coming Jesus. And as we come to this text today, my proposition to you is that what we see in the text is this, is that we live most gloriously when we live for eternity. And Paul gives us two reasons as to why we should have that focus. One negative and one positive. The negative reason is we live for destruction when we live for this world. And the positive reason is that we live for glory. We live for victory when we live for Christ's return. They're the two things that I want to have a look at this morning. Let me remind you, let's see these things in the text as we read this passage again. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship, listen to this, our citizenship is in heaven. And from it we await a saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Paul is essentially saying to the Philippians, with all the people who are coming in and around you in this city and in this church, be careful about who you imitate. Don't imitate these negative examples. Imitate the positive example. You see, Philippi was only about a day's walk from Neapolis, which was on the coast of Macedonia. And they would have a lot of itinerants coming through and coming to Philippi. And so they would have lots of examples, lots of people coming through. Paul was one. of these people. And so they would need to do what we need to do, and that is to discern who we're going to be like and who we're not going to be like, who we're going to listen to and who we are not going to listen to. See, Paul had already helped them to understand about some people who had come alongside them, or were wanting to come alongside them, and that is the Judaizers. But Paul doesn't want them to be like that, and also some other people who he's about to talk about. So we, like the Philippian church, need to discern what to accept and reject. But Paul first makes a statement. Look at his first statement in verse 17. Look at this statement. He first makes a statement that to some of us might seem really, really arrogant. When we open this passage, he says, brothers, join in imitating me. Be like me. And keep your eyes open for anybody else who will be like us. Let me tell you what happened to me the moment I started preparing for the sermon this week. I felt amazingly inadequate as your pastor. Can I say these words to those that God has asked me to shepherd? Imitate me. But I became amazingly reassured at something. Two things, in fact. Firstly, if you will remember that the last time we were in Philippians, we had just talked about Paul telling everybody that he had not yet attained, he had not yet arrived, he had not yet been made perfect. Paul isn't saying imitate me because I'm a perfect example. Paul is saying, imitate the one who has not yet arrived. But even more than that, Paul is saying, imitate something very specific about me. He's not just saying, imitate me as a person, but he is saying, imitate the focus that I have. Imitate what I have just talked to you about. Imitate this focus, and what is his focus? His focus is that he is pressing on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The focus that says, I count everything else rubbish for the sake of the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, to fellowship with Christ in his sufferings and in his death and somehow to attain the resurrection from among the dead. That's his focus. Imitate that focus, that focus that is squarely on Jesus, on the Jesus who is yet to come. In other places, in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. His focus is on Christ. So Paul is not just saying imitate a person, he's saying imitate this focus. Imitate the focus of looking unto Jesus, of living for Jesus, of having a Christ-focused life. And look at what he says. Brothers, which is brethren, which is brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, join in imitating me. Be fellow imitators. Imitators. Think about that word, imitate. He didn't say, agree with me. He said, imitate. It's a call to action. It's not passive. There is nothing passive about imitating somebody. You have to actually study them. You actually have to think about it. You have to imitate what they're doing. You're mimicking them. And so this is a call to action. We hear this in other parts of the scripture, don't we? Be not just hearers of the word, but also doers. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. So today, Hear me, today, of all days. Don't walk out of here saying, that was a good sermon. I mean, if you ever even do that. But don't. Don't come and be hearers and, oh, that was good. Today, observe and learn from those who have lived an example, like Paul. When he says us, I believe it's him and Timothy. Go out and do. Today is not coming here and leaving an agreement. No, this is about coming, hearing, and becoming imitators of Christ. Think about it, all through what you're about to hear. Well, what is the argument here? Paul actually has a good structure, and I want us to see this structure. He says, imitate me, anybody that is like us, verse 17, and then you have two examples. You have two reasons for it. Verse 18 and 19 is one reason, and verse 20 and 21 is the other reason. They both start with the same word. The Greek word is ga, which means for. In verse 20, you might have the word but, but it's actually the word for. There is a contrast there, that's why it says the word but. But these are two reasons, and Paul is saying there are two very good reasons that are going to help us understand exactly what this Christian focus is and why we need to imitate this focus. Why? Because, firstly, verse 18 and 19, we live for destruction when we live for this world. That's why we need to have a Christ-focused life. Listen to these words. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears walk as enemies of the cross, their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. Now Paul has just warned them just previously in chapter 3 from the beginning about the Judaizers who might come among them and they want them to follow the law, to observe the Torah, to observe circumcision for right standing with God and Paul is saying no. But there's another group, he seems to be talking about them and he talks about them with tears. He's very much concerned about them because they seem to be using the name of Christ but they seem to be opposite. to the Judaizers. They seem to be absolutely opposite because they don't care about the law. In fact, they're only interested in the world. They're not for the law, they're against law. They're anti-gnomian. Gnomos, law, anti, against, antinomians that are among them. So why do you need to imitate the Christ-centred focus of Paul? Well, what do these words say? If not, you're an enemy of the cross. Your end is destruction. whose God is your belly, who glory in shame, who have a worldly mindset, whose eyes are for this world. That's a pretty good reason, isn't it? Not a good enough reason? That's a good reason to imitate. Your heaven, your focus is in heaven or it is in this world. It is one of two places. You either gather or you scatter. You're a friend of Jesus or you're an enemy of the cross. Paul doesn't mince words. He says they are enemies of the cross. How do you become an enemy of the cross? Ultimately, I would suggest to you, it's found in your focus, and then from your focus, you see the fruit. Look at the focus. You see that in verse 19. Their minds are set on earthly things. And that word we've seen in Philippians many times already. That word is phronaim, which means mindset. It means disposition. They have a worldly disposition. We need to be warned about having a worldly disposition. Actually, the Apostle John warns us very well, same sort of warning that Paul is giving right here in his first letter, in 1 John 2, verses 15 and 16. 1 John 2, 15 and 16, he says this, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. They're enemies of the cross. For all that is in this world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from this world. And then John goes on to say in the beginning of verse 17, and this world is passing away along with its desires. It's doomed for destruction. It's probably one of the most important warnings that we can have in all of the Bible. To many of us, this world seems to offer so much. And I know we're Christians. We're Christians, and we say, yes, we're Christians, and we're not worldly. But I want to ask you, are you or not? Are you sure? Because we can so easily be that way. Look, think about what we have, what we have even here in America, even when we're on the lowest rung of the income scale in America. We have good food. We have good entertainment, wealth, and prosperity. We have lifestyle. I know we complain about health care, but our health care is so much better than what you can get in Afghanistan and places like that. We have retirement security and 401ks and IRAs. And some of us, you know, we take, we look at this, and that is where we see our security. That is what we're hoping in. But let me tell you, that's a focus on this world, and all of those things are doomed for destruction. Christ doesn't save us even to try and make this world better. There are many people who call themselves Christians and the whole point of Christianity to them is that we've got to make this world better, that we've just got to try and do something about this world, make America better or make this world better. But that's not the call of Christ either. This world could get a lot better and it's still going to be doomed for destruction. Listen to what Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones says about this. I just want you to hear his words. They really hit me this week. Whatever focus we have in this world, it's a focus that is not on an eternal future. So listen to this. Don't think of earthly things just as things that are flagrantly evil and ugly. Worldliness can be very respectable. Worldliness can be very highly respectable, very moral, very ethical, very good. Worldliness can be very concerned about improving the state of the world. Worldliness can cover all of this because, you see, it never goes beyond this. This world is temporary. Get it? And Lloyd-Jones is talking about people who define Christianity as making the world a better place, but even those who don't, let me tell you why I emphasise a certain point a lot, and I want you to know why I emphasise it. You often hear me say I'm not interested in where the culture is headed in comparison to where I am interested in where every single individual soul in this world is headed. You hear the comparison there? because this culture is eventually headed for doom, but people can be saved out of it. I'm more interested in every individual soul. Listen to what Paul says when he writes to Titus. Here is a focus that is the similar type of focus that we read here in Philippians, Titus 2, 11 to 13. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He's saying the same thing. Where is your focus today? Because if your focus is on this world, if your focus is on this that we're living in now, our temporary state, it's going to have certain fruit. And look at what that fruit is in verse 18 and 19. The ultimate fruit of worldly focus. What you focus on will determine your destination. The world is doomed for destruction. If your focus and trust is in this world, your end, the end is destruction. Your end will be the same as this world. But there's other fruit that we see in these verses. Paul says their God is their belly, their glory in their shame. Notice that they are enemies of the cross that are doing this, and this is how he describes them as enemies of this cross. How does he describe them? He doesn't talk about what they're saying. He doesn't talk about what they're thinking. He talks about how they're living. There are people who can be enemies of the cross. They take the name Christ. They can actually also say, we believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave, and then they walk away and have no other thought of him, and their mind and their focus is totally in this world. totally on themselves. That's an enemy of the cross. Their enemy is of the cross by the way that they practice. Their God is their belly. That doesn't mean that in Philippi there are a whole heap of fat people walking around. It means that they were fleshly. They were interested in their own appetites. They live to please themselves. They live for whatever pleases their own flesh. Paul warns about this in Romans as well, Romans 16, 17 to 18, he says, I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles, contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught. Avoid them, for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. Their God is their belly. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. Brothers and sisters, church family, hear me when I say let's be careful when we are listening to preachers because today we can listen to all sorts of preachers all over the internet, all on the TV, we can listen to all sorts of people that are telling us come to Jesus and you'll get all of the benefits that you get and they're all benefits that they describe of having in this world. You'll kick your drug habit, you'll get in charge of your own destiny, you'll feel a lot better about yourself and all of those types of things. But that is not the gospel. The Gospel is that we are sinners, that we have rebelled against God, that we have not measured up to His righteous standard which is a perfect standard and we are rightly under His condemnation and we need a Saviour who is the Lord Jesus Christ who came and took that judgment for us on the cross and then rose from the dead and if we come to faith in Him, we trust Him alone, we can be saved and reconciled with God. That is the Gospel. So let's watch out for those preachers who preach Christ and then live as if their God is their belly. And glory in shame. A worldly focused person is a person who glories in the things that belong to the God of this world. They find glory in shame. They worship fleshly desire. They exchange the glory for the Creator for the created things. As we heard last week in Romans 1. And I know, I know that there are people in this room who know what I'm talking about. I know that there are people who have sought glory in shameful things, people who have abandoned the cross for what John calls the desires of the flesh and the pride of life. I know, but I also know that there are those people, maybe you are the same people, that I'm so thankful for that you have said no. I don't want this. That's not glory and shame, that's repentance. I'm turning from this. I'm turning to God. You know what? I thank God for you. I thank God for repentance. I thank God for people who come and say, help, help. I don't want this in my life. I don't want to wallow. See, when somebody comes doing that, I see a sheep. Sheep follow, but pigs wallow. Sheep follow, but pigs wallow. Don't be the wallower. Don't be the one who glories in the shame. Well, who are the people who have the focus and fruit of this world? They are enemies of the cross. They want to stay in this world. Their end is destruction, just like the world. Loving the world is enmity with God. And I know I'm saying some hard things. I know, well, you know what, it's Paul saying them, isn't he? But sometimes it's absolutely necessary for me to echo this as loudly and as strongly as I possibly can because you know what, the last thing, the last thing, the worst possible imaginable thing I could think of is somebody going and standing before God thinking that they're a Christian and finding out that they're not. That's the last thing that I would ever want to see. I've seen the fruit of these people who profess Christ and have no concern for Him in their life. And let me tell you what that fruit is. It's full of anxiety, because this world can't offer you any eternal solution. The fruit is anxiety, the fruit is depression, the fruit is fear, the fruit is hopelessness, the fruit is self-indulgence and greed and idolatry and immorality and the lack of wisdom. That's that fruit. Where is your focus? What is your fruit? If you're hearing me and saying, oh no, I think that's me, I've got one thing to say to you, look to the cross. Look to Christ, because Christ can forgive. Christ can give you the eternal solution. Look, look to Christ and trust Christ and live. Look at Him. How do we even assess that? How do we even assess that our focus is like that? Well, here are some good questions to ask yourself. Where do you spend most of your time? Where do you spend most of your money? What grabs your affections the most? What dictates your thoughts? Answer those questions honestly. That's a good exercise for us as Christians to go through, isn't it? and ask ourselves those questions. That is the negative reason because people who are like this are doomed to destruction. Their focus is on the world and the world is doomed to destruction. If you want to be in the world, you're going to have the worldly end. But there is a positive, there is an amazing reason, an incredibly optimistic reason as to why we should imitate the Christ focus that Paul has. Listen to it in verse 20 and 21, for our citizenship is in heaven. And from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself. It's the exact contrast to what we've just heard. We are not of this world. Our citizenship is elsewhere. Actually, the exact translation of this is, our citizenship exists in heaven. It's a present term, exists now. Our citizenship is right now. If you're in Christ, your citizenship right now is in heaven. Yeah, but you know what? That's kind of spiritual. It doesn't really hit me. I don't really get that. because I'm physically here, I'm physically in America, I'm living in Hyde Park or wherever else in Cincinnati you're living. This is a spiritual reality. And you know what one of our problems is, and let me ask you to think through this, because sometimes people will say to me, Stephen, you're spiritualizing the text. Yes. You know why? Because we always think unless something's physical, it's not real, it's not literal. But this is a literal truth. This is a real truth. This is a reality. This is a spiritual reality as much as any other type of reality. In fact, it's even more of a reality because it actually exists for all of eternity. Spiritual reality is reality. It is a literal truth. You are in the kingdom of heaven right now. while you live in this world. The Philippians were living in a Roman colony, but the Roman colony is not their home. They have a different citizenship. They have a different Lord, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, not the Lord Caesar. Paul is showing us a mentality that we all need to have, and here it is. Let me plead that you have this mentality. You are pilgrims in this world. You are passing through if you're in Christ. You are exiles in this world as citizens of heaven. Jesus is your passport. You might say, but this is my country. I still live in America. Yes, you do. We still live in America. I have no problem with that. I want us to be good citizens. Romans 13 calls us to be good citizens of wherever we are and respect those who govern over us. Pray for them as we did this morning. Yes, do all of that, but I want you to know that you actually have a different citizenship. It's in heaven. And so we need to look at any country in this world with Christ-centred glasses. We're only pilgrims in America. We're only exiles in Australia. We're only pilgrims in England. We're only exiles in Israel when we know Christ. So we exist in the heavenly kingdom right now. But also, not yet. Not yet. Because we await it, don't we? We eagerly await the Lord, the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're awaiting the transformation of our lowly bodies into glorious bodies. We're awaiting the final day of victory over every enemy of God. Don't underestimate how important this is for the Philippian Church, by the way, and for us. But think about the Philippian Church for a moment. They're surrounded by people who say, Lord Caesar, and only Lord Caesar, and you need to act exactly like us. And so they have people coming in, and those people might be saying, Christ, Christ, Christ, and only living just like the rest of the Roman colony and having no concern for Christ. And let me tell you, if the Philippians don't want persecution, if they're tempted to run away from persecution, the best way for them to do it is just take the name of Christ but just live like everybody else. Because nobody cares if you're a Christian if you just live like the world and believe like the world. Nobody cares. But everybody cares if you're shining the light of Christ on the sin and darkness of this world and they have to realise that there is somebody else that we are accountable to for all of eternity. That is hard. That is difficult. And if you're going to do that, you're going to get persecution. And if you're going to have persecution, you better have good confidence and a good reason for going through the hard times that being a Christian brings. And you do. Our eternal citizenship is in a current Saviour who is returning. We await, we are awaiting the Saviour. Who is that Saviour? The current Lord Jesus Christ. Look at how it says, we await the Saviour. Who's the Saviour? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's Lord right now. He's reigning right now. He's on the seat of victory right now. That's who we have right now, Jesus. And we're waiting for his return. And it's not a passive waiting. We're not sitting around saying, I wonder when Jesus is going to turn up. That's not what we're doing. The word is eagerly await, actually. It's waiting with incredible anticipation, and it's waiting with action, like a bride who is waiting for her wedding day. What does a bride do when she's waiting for her wedding day? I watched it. I watched my daughter do it. She was getting herself ready, going on all sorts of diets to make sure that she was exactly where she wanted to be and making sure that the dress was right and that she would get the right makeup and the right hair and that everything else was right for the service so that she could present herself to Caleb exactly the way that she wanted to be the very best on that day that she could be. I was watching it all in front. The girliness was crazy. I had to get out, go to Chick-fil-A. But it was beautiful too, because I was watching my daughter preparing herself for a husband exactly the way that we need to as the bride of Christ, as you read in Revelation 19, preparing herself for the wedding banquet that we're going to have. That's what we need to be like. So, what do we as citizens of heaven have to look forward to? Well, it's a future where a full and final transformation will occur. Look at what we read. Our bodies will be transformed into being like the glorious resurrection body of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will have bodies like him. Wow! Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying and the disciples couldn't do it because they were kept on going to sleep and he was saying, watch out because temptation is at your door. Your spirit is willing but your flesh is weak. Imagine a day where your spirit is willing and your flesh is willing. Imagine that day. Imagine that day when there is no more war between spirit and flesh. Imagine that day. Imagine how glorious that day will be when we will not have any distraction of sin, but we can look at all of the infinite glory of our God and just immerse ourself into following and pleasing Him in all that we do. I can't wait for that day. And let me remind you that the enemies of the cross glory in their body now while the friends of Christ glory in our body yet to come. We can't wait for that. One day Jesus will return and those who are in the grave will be brought out and given a body like his and some of them have had their ashes sprinkled in the sea and I don't even know how he knows what molecules and particles to use. Some who have been dead for hundreds of years have their skeletons are nowhere to be found and they're just merged and decayed with all the rest of the dirt and some who just have nothing left, there's nothing left to show for, but just like God knows every single particle and molecule of the dirt to form Adam and give him a life-breathing spirit, He knows exactly what He's going to do with us, exactly every part that He's going to use to give us an incredible body just like Christ on the day of that resurrection. It's just going to be awesome. there will be a final day where you will be fully transformed like Christ. Do you want that day to come? Is it ringing in your ears and your head to say, come Lord Jesus? Do you even care? Do you even have a category of excitement for that? I hope you do. Are you sure of that day? How sure can we be? How confident can we be? Just look at this, to finish off, look at this. Because on that day our bodies will be raised and made like the glorious body of Jesus by the power that enables Jesus to subject all things to himself. That's the power. Or you might have the word working. They're both good words to use in relation to the translation of this Greek word, which is energein. Ergo, which is work, you might have working, and that's great. Or energein, from which we get the word energy. And so this is a power, this is an energy, this is a working that is in Christ Jesus. It is a powerful working, an energy that is over every single other principality in this universe. It is all power. Where is it? What is subject to Jesus? All things, Paul says, all things. I love the way that he puts it in Ephesians. I just live for this day. Listen to this, in Ephesians chapter one. Paul says, he describes it as the immeasurable power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in far above all rule and authority and dominion and power and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head, gave him his head over all things to the church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. In Christ we have a Lord and Saviour who has power over all things and places everything in subjection to Him. He puts them all under His feet like a footstool. He's leaning back on a recliner, sticking His feet on His enemies. They are no power compared to the power of Christ. None. And this is the power that will raise us up on the last day. This is the power that is coming. and we should equally await His return. Let me ask you, in Jesus, are you lacking anything? No, thank you. One person isn't. Are you lacking anything? No! Can you be assured of the ultimate, eternal fulfilment of all things in Christ? Yes! Christ's power makes your resurrection absolute. Think about it. Think about the fruit of this world. Anxiety, depression, shame, despair, destruction. But remember, when you see all of that, when those things bring you despair, those things bring you anxiety, here is my answer. You are not of this world. In Christ Jesus. You ever heard You ever heard that statement, this guy is so heavenly minded that he's not earthly good? He has no earthly good. Have you heard that statement? I spit on that statement. And you should too. I only have anything good in this world when I am completely heavenly minded. There's one more thing I want you to see. I think what Paul is doing here in these verses is giving us a beautiful reflection of what he's already told us in Philippians chapter 2, when he talks about Jesus Christ. He uses two words that are the same words. He uses humility, our humble bodies, and he uses form. We are transformed into the glorious body of Christ, right? And so he uses these two words, and we've seen these two words used in a similar way, but in an opposite way in Philippians chapter 2. when Jesus Christ we have to have the same humility that he is to have the one who was in the form in the morphe in the form of God did not hold on to his grasp onto his place on the throne but he came he humbled himself in the nature of a servant becoming nothing born as a man and born in the likeness of a man was obedient to death even death on the cross and so that God exalted him now think about this The one in the form of God humbled himself in human flesh so that those in humble human flesh might be found in the form of his glory. Let me say that again. The one in the form of God humbled himself in human flesh so that those in humble human flesh might be in the form of his glory. One day. What single other thing in this world do you have to live for? Is there anything? So I'm asking you, I'm begging you, brothers and sisters, live with Christ-focused glasses. Live for the consummation. I know we talk about having a biblical worldview, but I want to coin a new phrase for our church. I want to have a Christ view. I want to live with a Christ view. I want to live unto him returning. I want to live for that day because that day gets me through everything else in this world because of what he has done for me. Consummation glasses, that's what we've got to have. Christ view glasses. Put them on because heaven is our home and this is not our eternal body. We live most gloriously when we live for eternity. Over 400 years ago, thousands of Puritans were buried in one big cemetery called Bunhill Fields. They were men and women who were seriously about eternity. They were non-conformists. They did not conform to this world, but they looked forward to the day that they would be fully transformed into the likeness of their Lord and Saviour. You know why I really love to stand in Bunhill Fields? Because I do it every single time I've gone there, and I've gone there many times. If I ever go to London, this is my favourite place in London, bar none, that's the place to go and see, that's the place to go and stand. Why? Because when I stand there and think about what it will look like on Resurrection Day, when after 400 years of decay, these men and women will be raised in new and glorious bodies, resurrection bodies just like Jesus. I want to see it! And one day, my body might be in the ground, maybe decayed. And today I want to live knowing that someone standing next to my grave on Resurrection Day will behold an amazing transformation when I am raised before their eyes because of the coming of our Lord Jesus. I want that. I want that. I want to live for that glorious day. There's nothing else. That's the focus I want to have. So imitate me as I imitate Christ. Church family, this happens because our Saviour is the ultimate victor of all the universe. Where is your focus? Where is your life focus? Where is your passion? Where is your time spent? Where are your resources spent? Where are your affections? What is your goal? Come, behold the wondrous mystery of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Look to Christ. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, come. I know that means the judgment of billions of people, but Lord, I can't, I just, just come. Come. Please, Lord, we wait. And I pray, Lord, that you would guide us to wait eagerly, actively, that we would be preparing ourselves for that day. Lord, if there are people that don't know you, even here in this room, Lord, please, please save them. Out of this world and into your glorious kingdom, may we have Christ-focused glasses in all of our life. I pray for these beautiful people that you have given me to teach. Point their eyes to you, Lord. I pray, I plead. Amen.