Sunday Morning Service 10:30 AM -

Good morning, everybody. Good to see you this morning. Let's all stand. I'll open us with some prayer and let's worship. What do you say? Lord, thank you for this time. God, we just want to take a moment, Lord, and just to honor you for the opportunity that we have to gather here freely, Lord. We don't want to take it for granted this morning, Lord. We want to take advantage of it,

take advantage of this time, this opportunity this morning to meet with you. God, just make us so aware of your presence this morning. Father, just fill us all with your Holy Spirit. God, come and do what only you want to do, Lord, and may we regard you as you deserve, Lord. You are our God, our Father, our Protector, Lord, our Lord, Lord of our lives, God. So may we just

honor you and revere you as you deserve. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, God. We thank you for who you are, Lord, for everything that you are doing in our lives, Lord, whether we can see it or not, whether we think it's good or not. Lord, you work all things for our good and your glory, Father. So may we just continue to honor you and revere you and give you praise as you deserve. In Jesus' name, the praise, the adoration, Lord, everything that we are,

we offer to you this morning. Father, may you just continue to go before us this morning, continue to speak to us and minister to us and just fill us with your Holy Spirit, God. Make us so aware of you, Lord, who you are. Remind us of who you are, Lord, in our lives this morning. God, so we thank you. We love you. We ask that you just continue to go before us. In Jesus' name, amen. Go ahead

and greet those worshiping around you, if you want. No pressure. Good morning. If you guys can find your seats, we'll get started. Good morning. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. We're glad that you've chosen to worship with us today. Going over the bulletin. On the left-hand side is the things going on week by week. Little things and places to get plugged into. There's something about every day of the week,

so find a place to get yourself plugged into. In the middle of the section, what's happening, we got the Bible reading plan still going through. We're going through that the whole year. So it's posted online on social media, and then it's on the back of the bulletins as well. There's a little graph of what to be reading on which day. Continue to bear with us in the absence of a kitchen. They

have the back door closed, so please pray. Refrain from going in there for now. It's a bit of a mess, but I looked in there earlier, and it's looking more like a kitchen than it did last week, so we're off to a good start there. Continue to pray for the Guatemalan missions trip. They're over there. They've been over there for a few days now, and there's some pictures I've seen. Looks like they're having a fun time. Looks

like they're doing a lot of good work over there. Intercessory prayer is tonight at 6 p.m. Don't forget about that. There is no women's breakfast this month. There's going to be a conference, the Reclaiming Masculinity Conference, Saturday, September 12th at Prairie View Christian Camp, out of Arc City. It's going to be 8.30 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon. You can hear from

multiple speakers on hot-button topics. Registration is free and lunch is provided. This event is open to all men. There's a QR code to sign up for on the bulletin there. There's going to be another Bible study put on by Family Life Services. I'm going to have someone come up and talk about that a little bit. Hi, my name is Melinda, and I'm with Family Life Services. We are starting a Bible study

for single moms. We're going to be doing a Bible study for single moms. We're going to be doing a Bible study for single moms. We're going to be doing a Bible study for single moms. We're going to be doing a Bible study for single moms. It's called Embrace Life. About a year ago, we started Embrace Grace, which is a Bible study for single moms that are pregnant, and that had been going

on at Arc City First down on Summit. So with talking to Pastor Ryan, he opened up the doors that we could do a Bible study here to minister and disciple moms, single moms. And not just moms that have littles, but moms that have older kids. Life changes. Sometimes divorce happens. Sometimes widowhood happens a lot sooner than expected. And so we just want to have a place

to be able to support moms in the different stages of life. And so if anything, first of all, you can always keep us in your prayers, because it's a strong, strong spiritual warfare to get moms to be committed and get moms to just have that support that we all moms need, whether unhealthy or healthy relationships. So there are some ways you can get involved. We are going to be doing quarterly baskets, or just a basket to give away to the moms. So if

there's anything that you would like to help in that way, you can donate items. Once we're ready for them, we'll put something out with what the basket will be. We'll put it in the box. And we'll and then if you'd like to help you can donate some of those items. Another way to support is on Tuesdays at 630 we want to have snacks so if you'd like to provide some snacks we'd love for you to bring them over. Another way is child

care. We want to provide child care for these moms so they don't have an excuse not to come. That's always a struggle they don't have somebody to watch the little. So if you would like to volunteer please reach out to Krista myself and we'd love to use you. And finally one of the other ways is just hospitality. Sometimes we just need other women to support other women so if you

have a heart to serve these group of women please reach out to us. There'll be a sign-up sheet out on the foyer and yeah I think that's it. We started. Tuesday August 25th. One thing that I just want to throw out as well is Family Life Services is supporting the Reclaim Masculinity and a day and age when we just it gets stripped away from our men. So even if you feel you don't need it

bring somebody. There's a lot of men around you that need that little extra support so we would encourage you to really just come alongside other men to have just some good day of teaching and encouragement. Thank you. All right this week pastor Ryan's out so we're blessed again to have Tyler for a guest speaker today and we're gonna do the responsive reading so if you want to turn to Psalm 27 and if you're able you can stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word. All right can you guys hear me alright? As Ryan does the

typical housekeeping items make sure your mobile device is silenced and I will be reading the odd verses of Psalm 27. If you guys can join along and read the even verses that'd be awesome then we'll get into our message. Alright so Psalm 27 the Psalm of David verse 1 the Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the defense of my life whom shall I dread when evildoers came upon me to defy my flesh my adversaries and my enemies they stumbled and fell though a host encamp against me my heart will not fear the war rise against me in spite of this I shall be confident one thing I have asked from the Lord that I shall seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord

and to meditate in his temple for in the day of trouble he will conceal me in his tabernacle in the secret place of his tent he will hide me he will lift me up on a rock and now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me and I will offer in his tents sacrifices with shouts of joy I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, and be gracious to me, and answer me. When you said, Seek my face, my heart said to you, Your face, O Lord, I shall seek. Do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Do not abandon me, nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me in a level path, because of my foes. Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence.

I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong. And let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. You may be seated. Father, I thank you for this Sunday morning, Lord. It's a beautiful day. Lord, I thank you that we get to come and gather and get into your word.

Lord, I pray that you fill me with your spirit so that I don't speak anything of myself. And, Lord, I also want to ask that you speak directly and individually to each person here. Lord, I believe you have a word for them, and we're excited to see you move. So, Father, go before us today. Let your spirit be evident. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Hi, guys. It's good to see you all again. I'm excited to be here because it means two things. One, I get to share God's word, which is something I love that I get to do. But two, I didn't scare Pastor Ryan away with the first message I gave. So, praise the Lord for that. He's in Oklahoma. Him and Aaron and then Jared as well are down there. And pray that they get refreshed, that they can come back because they've been serving here faithfully.

Jared's going to be celebrating his anniversary down there for a little bit. So, pray that him and Alyssa get some quality time. But, ultimately, I'm excited to get to share from the word today. Ryan came and said, hey, are you willing? I said, sure. He said, well, what do you want to teach? I was like, well, what do you want me to teach? So, let the spirit lead.

So, I was like, all right, spirit lead. And, ultimately, something hit me a couple weeks ago when he was teaching through Hebrews chapter 10. It wasn't like a big section or a big point, but he talked about being satisfied in Christ. I was like, ooh. Man, satisfied in Christ. He brought up a bunch of different things that we try to find our satisfaction in.

And it was like, man, I definitely struggle with trying to find my contentment, my satisfaction, those things, apart from Christ. So, when I've gotten asked to speak, I've kind of done topical messages. But, ultimately, I like expositing the text, finding what the text says and let it draw from itself. So, we're going to be going through the book of Philippians.

So, as I get the opportunity to teach, you can turn over to Philippians chapter 1. We're going to get to see how being satisfied in Jesus is connected to Philippians. The title of today's message is Captivated by Christ. Captivated by Christ. The big series idea is being satisfied in Jesus. And we're going to be finding true joy and contentment through Christ Jesus in Philippians.

So, we'll be going through only verses 1 through 11 today. I want to pull out as much as we can. I don't want to zoom too fast through it. I tend to get excited. So, I'm trying to, like, slow down and pronounce my words. Not. Not just race through things. So, I'm excited to get into it. Captivated by Christ. I'm going to go ahead and read the whole section that we're going through.

Verses 1 through 11. So, we can kind of get it all in our heads. Get the big picture of where we're going, what we're doing. And then I'll go verse by verse and pull out things along the way. So, if you have your Bibles, have them open to Philippians chapter 1. And we'll read verses 1 through 11. Verse 1. Verse 1. Verse 6. Verse 7. I am confident of this very thing.

That he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all. Because I have you in my heart. Since both my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. You are all partakers of grace with me. For God is my witness. How I long for you with all the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this I pray. At your love. And I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ. Verse 11. Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and the praise of God.

Okay, that's our section. Whenever I start a new book, I like to try to get in a certain mindset. I have to try to understand. Where it's coming from. So I'll kind of ask, well, who wrote this? Why are they writing it? What's the context behind it? What what are we bringing ourselves into? What are we going to discover as we get into the text? So, um, bear with me for a little bit as I'm going to give a quick summary of Acts chapter 16, because that's the first time Paul is going to come and encounter the Philippians.

By the way, full transparency. I had a slideshow and we use it for service, but the text was too small. So I'm learning how to make slideshows. That will be better for everyone to see. So, you're just going to have to listen and picture this in your mind, but I'm getting into Acts chapter 16. I'm going to give a good amount of detail about this because Philippians is a very personal letter.

Okay, Acts chapter 16. Paul is starting his second missionary journey, right? Talking about Paul, this guy Saul that we know about. We often say that Paul was his changed name from Saul, but actually Saul was his Hebrew name. Paul is his Greek name. So he just started going by the separate one, but ultimately he gets saved. He's going out doing the Great Commission.

He's planting churches everywhere. He starts in Asia. So it goes from Jerusalem to Asia. Then, as he's in Asia, he comes through a screeching halt. And it's like, why? Why is this happening? Why is the Spirit, it says in Acts chapter 16, forbids him from continuing to preach in the gospel? He's doing the good work. He's spreading the good news. Why would this happen?

Well, because God had a different plan. So he's a little tired, takes a nap, falls asleep, and he has a vision. This vision is of a Macedonian man. This Macedonian man is saying, Paul, come to us. Please come. We want to hear the good news. We want to hear the gospel. We just have no one to share it to us. So Paul wakes up from his little nap, his vision, and says, all right, we're going to go.

He takes Silas with them, Timothy, his whole group of protégés, his disciples that he's wanting to train up. And they go over to Europe. Macedonia is a big place. Inside of Macedonia, Philippi was a head of commerce. So he goes there. On the Sabbath, he goes to a place by the river. There's this lady named Lydia. Maybe you've heard of her in the Bible. She's a maker of fine purple cloth.

And he goes down there and starts sharing the gospel with her. She loves it. He gets saved. By the way, as I'm going through this, pay attention to certain names because it's a very personal letter. First name I mentioned was Lydia. So he goes down there. Her and her family get saved. She invites Paul into her house and says, tell me and my family about this.

They receive. They get baptized. Then, as he's staying with Lydia, he's going out into the square every day, town square, just doing his normal life. And in that square, there's a slave woman. Slave woman is possessed by evil spirits. That allows her to tell the future. So her owners use her to make lots of money. Hey, this girl can tell your future. Come over here.

She'll tell them. And this was common. When Paul would go there, this woman who had the evil spirit would declare something very interesting. She'd say, these are the men of the most high God. They come to proclaim to you the way of salvation, which seems like a good thing. She's saying exactly what they're doing. Why would this be annoying to Paul? Well, Paul gets annoyed because.

An evil spirit is falsely representing what God is actually wanting to do. So he decides to cast out the spirit. The woman is free, but this makes her owners very upset. Their way of finding fortune is now gone. So what do they do? They drag Paul into court, take him to the city officials. There's an uproar. This man's teaching things that are against the way of our life.

He's disrupting the town. They rip their clothes. It's a big scene. And then they throw Paul into prison, not just in prison, but in the inner circle of the prison. So here we go. Here's another man. That. You're going to want to pay attention to the flipping jailer. Paul and Silas go into prison. And what's interesting is they're bound in shackles. They're in a giant walled facility.

And they're singing praise and worship to God. It's a beautiful thing. As they're singing praise and worship to God, an earthquake happens. When this earthquake happens, their shackles break free. The walls come down and they are free to leave, free to escape. But they don't. Why don't they? Well, the flipping jailer comes back. He has his knife, his sword.

He's literally about to kill himself because he had one job. Don't let these men escape. And he failed at his job. But then Paul says, hey, wait, don't kill yourself. We're all here. This guy's shocked. What? You're prisoners? You could go free, but you don't? This is so interesting. He wants to know what Paul's talking about. That praise, those songs you're singing, what are they about?

Paul explains it to him. This guy gets saved, invites Paul to his house. His family gets saved. They get baptized. So now the Philippian jailer. And Lydia are housing Paul in Philippi. And the church is starting. This is the first church in Paul's second missionary journey in Europe. Okay. So once Paul starts this church, he continues going out. He goes to Galatia.

He goes to Ephesus. He goes to these different places that we'll see letters from. But his first church was Philippi. And what the Philippians do is send them with these little care packages. It's like, you know, when you get a birthday gift, you like write a little thank you note. And you say, oh, like, thank you so much. The Philippians have been sending Paul little care packages.

With money to support him on his journeys. He's like, wow, thanks guys. He writes this letter back. This letter is a prison epistle. Okay. Paul's in prison. He's writing this letter back because the last name I'll have you remember, then we're getting straight into the text. It's Epaphroditus. He's the one that comes and delivers this message, this care package to Paul.

So now Paul is sending him back with this care package to the Philippian people. Why did I spend time going through that? These are real people that Paul is writing to. Real personal connection. And you'll see, as we're going through this, we already read it once, but there'll be a bunch of moments that maybe as we're reading, you'll go, aww, that's so sweet.

Because Paul says some very sweet things. I've longed for you with all the love of Christ. Wow, that's a crazy statement. Or I care so deeply about you. So now that you have those people in your head, kind of the context of what we're getting ourselves into, we're going to get into verses one and two. Okay. Keeping in mind, title today is Captivated by Christ.

Learning about being satisfied in Jesus. Chapter one, we're going to see that Christ is our life. Each chapter will answer something different. It will give us a statement and a question. Chapter one is Christ is our life. The question is, what is my life centered on? Paul's going to say in this chapter, for me to live is Christ. Everything begins here. Chapter two, I'm just giving you a roadmap of where we'll be going.

Chapter two is Christ is our example. Who am I becoming? We see the humility of Jesus, the servant heart of Jesus, the mind of Christ. Chapter three is Christ. Christ is our treasure. What do I value most? I count everything as loss compared to knowing Christ. And chapter four is Christ is our strength. So today, chapter one, Christ is our life. All right, verses one and two.

Let's read them. Paul and Timothy, bond servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons. Grace to you and peace from God our Father. The Lord Jesus Christ. All right, I want to try to pull out everything we can from this. We already know about Paul, his backstory. Saul turned to Paul. But Timothy, why is Paul including Timothy?

Why would he do that? We know in most of his letters, Paul includes the people who are close in proximity to him. So Timothy was helping Paul during this time while he's in prison. But another point of fact, Timothy is Paul's protege, his disciple. The one that while Paul is in prison, he's not able to go out and do the work of the ministry. Timothy can. And we'll later see in the letter that Paul's going to send Timothy back to the Philippians to help them.

So Paul and Timothy are identifying as bond servants of Christ. Servants by choice, right? Ryan talks about all the time. Bond servants are slaves to a master who then they decide when they have reached their point of freedom, their time of working. Say, hey, I want to actually stay and work for you for the rest of my life because you've been a good leader, a good slave master.

And I, and pleased with you. So I'm going to become your bond servant. So Paul is opening up as author, right? He's saying who wrote this and he's saying what he's about. Now, two things I want to point out, application for this, Paul and Timothy. Paul's including Timothy as his disciple because Timothy is a part of this whole process, this whole journey with him.

Timothy is going to see exactly what Paul decides to write. He's going to learn everything that Paul is giving him because someday Timothy is going to become a pastor of churches. That Paul is going to help raise him up in. Paul is very intentional about investing into pouring into mentoring into the next generation. He's so concerned that he's mentioning Timothy in his letter to the Philippians.

Here's a question for you guys. Who around you are you investing into pouring into discipling? I get the privilege of serving in youth ministry. There's lots of youth kids in there and there's not a ton of leaders. But what we get to do is invest in them one day a week, but then hopefully the goal is that I can check in with them. We can see how they're doing back to schools coming up.

Maybe some kids are going to be moving from elementary school to middle school, middle school to high school. Those transitions are kind of tough. It'd be the sweetest thing for them to have a partner that would come and say, hey, how you doing? Hey, what's going on in your life? The fair is going on right now, right? Hey, you want to come to the fair? What's going on?

How you doing? And I'll tell you what that investment is going to show in how Timothy lives his life. Okay, and then bond servants. I did this fun little example with the youth kids. I had AI build a Instagram profile of Paul the Apostle and Paul the Apostle, you know, like in Instagram or Facebook, like you have your bio and you can like say what you're about.

Like if I was to think of like Donald Trump, his bio probably says, you know, president of the United States and like multi-billionaire businessman, right? Things that they're going to identify with, things that they're going to kind of project about themselves. If I was to introduce myself, I'd probably say, well, hi, I'm Tyler Buchanan. I'm now going to be working at Arc City.

Christian Academy. I like to play soccer, right? Kind of describe those things. Paul identifies as a bond servant. In other epistles, he identifies as an apostle. Why does he leave that out? An apostle is a sent one. A bond servant is a slave by choice. Well, in the other letters, he's trying to give doctrine. He's trying to give teaching. He's trying to show his authority to say, hey, you need to change what you're doing.

Here, it's just a very sincere letter. It's like, I'm a bond servant, a slave of Christ. He doesn't need to show his authority. But second, he's wanting to point out. That's his full identity, what he's choosing to represent himself with. I have a question for you guys. What do you identify yourself with? And I'm not saying that when you introduce yourself, I'm like, hi, I'm Tyler,

a child of God and a bond servant of Christ. Who are you? That's kind of strange, but genuinely, where do you find your identity in? The title of this message is being captivated by Christ. If you're captivated by something else, it's going to affect the way you live. We're going to hear that theme come up, that a heart captivated by Christ, is going to change a life captivated by Christ.

So let's continue. Paul, kind of simple, introducing himself as the author, going into the audience to the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's identifying his audience, saying and giving them instruction, but not instruction on what to do, but just instruction of, hey, how I'm doing. Kind of a checkup letter and a thank you letter.

So we're going to continue on to verses three down to five. Something that I want to kind of address before we go into that section is, it's going to sound like, I don't want it to sound like this, but like as we're going through, Paul's going to bring up things like, hey, I pray all the time for these people, or hey, I give thanksgiving. And my application is going to be, we should do these things too. I don't want to come off as a person just like waving my finger at you guys, like do this, do that.

And that'd be annoying. It'd be like, why does the guy keep telling me what to do? That's not my goal. That's not my heart. My heart is to say, hey, look, Paul's modeling for us one example of a heart captivated by Christ looks like. Paul has a heart that's captivated by Christ. If we leave this looking at Paul like, wow, he's such a good man, we're missing the point.

Paul only has a heart captivated by Christ because Jesus has captivated his life. That's what I'm wanting to illustrate, what I'm wanting to show. Paul can be satisfied in Christ because he's been captivated. So, verse three reads, I thank my God in all remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy, my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.

Okay. What's this about? Paul's starting off, he's actually starting to write the letter with thanking God. I thank God in all remembrance of you. Huh. Interesting. All remembrance of you. Now sit back, take a moment. We just described Paul's situation. One, he's in prison right now. He's not starting off telling them about his circumstances. He's not coming and saying, man, guys, this sucks.

I'm in here. I shouldn't be, oh my gosh, this cellar stinks like this is so wrong. He's not taking a stance of, look at me, look what I'm going through. He starts off by thanking them. By taking his eyes off of himself, not being self-centered and fixing his eyes on other people. Just a little note. I want to point out that's what a heart captivated by Christ looks like.

Not a self-centered inward looking heart. When it says, hey, looks and pays attention to other people. And here's something that came to mind. He says, my God, I thank my God in all remembrance of you. Now this is the Bible and I'm going to assume Paul's not telling a lie in all remembrance of you. What does that mean? That means like when I go to Walmart, I see a shirt and I think of someone and I'm like, oh, that reminds me of so-and-so.

I just picture Paul going, Lord, I thank you for them. Lord Jesus, they are just an amazing person. Bless them, help them to prosper. It's like, oh, dang, is this guy for real? Like every time, or I'm listening to a song and it makes me think of someone. It's like, wow, just start thanking God for them. That's crazy. But I think that's an encouraging or challenging thing.

Have any of you guys ever gotten a text that like, hey, thinking about you, praying for you, how you doing? It's like, oh, wow. Like, thanks for thinking of me. Thanks for praying for me. It's encouraging. It's exciting. And Paul's saying that every time he thinks of them, every time he remembers them, he's going to be praying for them. It's cool. I'm not too far out of my Bible college season, but I made lots of friends, lots of people I've connected with.

And I have the privilege of working up in Rose Hill. It's about 45, 50 minute drive. And as you're going there, you can fill your time with something. And sometimes I listen to worship music. Sometimes I listen to a sermon. Sometimes it's just quiet because I can't put any more things into my life. My brain is like, I just need some peace and quiet. But then, hey, maybe like one of my Bible college friends comes to mind.

It's like, hey, I'm going to reach out, see how they're doing. Hey, what you been up to in life? What are you struggling with? What things have God been doing in your life? What victories do you have? And that's how you can stay in touch. That's how you can have a heart captivated by Christ by caring about other people. Verse 4 says, always offering prayer with joy for you all.

In view of your prayer. In view of your participation with the gospel. I want to point something out that Paul says, I thank my God. Every time the Philippians come to mind. His first response is not frustration, disappointment, criticism. It's gratitude. And I think that's a testament to how the Philippians were living.

Here's There's a point that I wrote down my notes. I want to make sure I find we've gone a lot further than I thought.

Okay, always offering prayer with joy. In participation in view of your participation with the gospel until now. So Paul's offering it with joy and I want to ask the question. Why is that happening? Are these flipping people just like the nicest people ever or they just like not giving Paul any problems? Like are they just super pleasing to be around and I believe this question is answered in the next sentence.

He's offering it with joy because of their participation of the gospel. And this is what I was wanting to say. Paul isn't most thankful because they liked him. He's thankful because they have the same mission. He's thankful because sometimes when we come to church or when we hang out with our friends, like we hang out with people who have like similar personalities or share similar hobbies.

Like if you have football friends, you'll go and watch a football game. Paul's recognizing that hey, I enjoy being around these people not just because we have. Common things, but we have a common mission. We're focused on the same thing. He's thankful that they are with him in sharing the gospel. So here's no I wrote down friendship brought them together, but the gospel United them.

That's what we all are here in church today. Not because we all have a bunch of common interests, but because we have a common Savior and we have a common goal of making his name known. So as we come together and gather up in the team huddle for we go back out into the world, you know, if you're a teacher, that's where you're impacting people. If you're. Fabrication shop impacting the people and that you work with you come back together in your huddle to get filled back up to get encouraged to then go back out and proclaim the name.

So think about those people that Paul encountered. He met Lydia, the Roman jailer, former prisoners, people from different jobs, different backgrounds, social classes, life experiences. Paul's connection with them was not built around what they did or who they were, but around Jesus the gospel. So as I said in this week, there's going to be a progression that we saw that I want to point out verse one talks about his identity.

He's identifying as a bond servant first three his gratitude for them verse for his joy verse five their partnership and I asked myself what ties all these things together. And the answer isn't Paul. It's not the Philippians. It's not that he spent time in prison. It's not circumstances. It's Christ. Everything keeps coming back to him. That's what a captivated life looks like when you're choosing to be.

In participation with the gospel when you're choosing to participate with those around you to share the good news. You're all choosing to align your heart with what God wants and that aligned heart is going to produce an aligned life. That's going to be lived out. So I want to get to verse six because I think it's one of the most encouraging versus maybe in the New Testament verse six read for I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

I read that again. For I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it to the day of Christ Jesus. I want to point out a couple words that this verse emphasizes one being confident. Second one is he it's capitalized doesn't seem very special, but we'll look into it and then until not crazy standout words, but why are they included will one?

What a statement Paul doesn't say. I hope he doesn't say, I think he doesn't say maybe he says I'm confident and that's strong language because it's not a good feeling that he has. It's not it's going to be. Well, I'm confident question begs to be asked. Where does this confidence come from?

Paul tells us where it comes from comes from the fact that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus. He doesn't say I'm confident because you're growing. He doesn't say I'm confident because you're faithful. He doesn't say I'm confident because you've been doing really well. His confidence is somewhere else. It's not his confidence isn't the Philippians.

It's in God and that changes everything. If your confidence is in Pastor Ryan when he comes up here and shares the word people let you down people are going to fail and people sin, but Paul's confidence. Is it resting on like human ability? It's resting on God's ability. So I tried to like sum this up in a like way that will project it. Okay, let's look at the verbs who began the work God who continues the work God who perfects the work God who finished the work God notice who's doing all the work.

It's it's not you. It's not I'm going to be a kinder person today. I'm not going to I'm not I'm going to be more humble today. I'm not going to complain like okay up in Rose Hill. I get to work at a fabrication. Shop, but I'm really just like the yard dog that gets to go and be the apprentice help everyone. So one of my jobs is we eating the entire property and it's like just eight hours a day with the weed eater.

It's like oh my gosh, it was hot the last week. I am tired. My forearms are killing me and it's so easy to want to just start complaining or being frustrated. And if I just tell myself Tyler stop stop complaining Tyler stop thinking that that's not going to work like I'm tired. I'm sweating. I'm actively like oh my gosh, my arms are going to fall off. And the more that I just keep telling myself don't do something the more that it's just like man.

I want to do it. But then if I was just stopping to like Lord help me my arms are tired. I don't want to do this but help me to get through it because I want to be faithful for you that changes the substance. Why? Because Paul's not telling them I'm confident because you're doing so well. He says I'm confident because God never abandons what he starts. God's not going to leave you where you're at.

You know, sometimes you have a week that just like doesn't make sense. It's like God. What are you doing this week? I don't understand where we're going. For example, this week included like getting pulled over having car issues watching our lovely nephew, which is very fun getting to watch a baby, but they also don't really sleep through the night. So you get little sleep and just like man, this is a rough week and I have to prepare for this message on Sunday.

Like God, what are you doing? And if I forsake all those little lessons that he's teaching me throughout the week, I'm not going to learn anything. I'm going to bypass all the lessons that he has for me just to try to focus on what I think is more important. We shouldn't be projecting our own mentality of how we're going to grow. It's God. He's going to do the growing.

He's going to give you exactly what you need each and every moment. So Paul says he who began God always makes the first move. He begins he initiates he saves and he transforms. If God starts something. He's going to finish it. If salvation depended on me, I lose it. If sanctification depended entirely on me, I'd quit. But Paul says God began the work. God continues the work and God completes the work.

So first service. There's this lovely lady named Gong. I asked her if I could share the story because when my wife and I read through this passage together, I was like, all right, babe, like you want to redo this with me? Let's like I'm curious to know what you think because we think. Very differently. And I love that about us. But she's like, oh my gosh, this makes me think of a story.

My mom told me about this lady Gong and basically what Gong statement was is it goes like this. I want to make sure I quote it correctly. Every morning when she wakes up, she says God's not done. She goes to sleep wakes up. God gives another day. God's not done. And why am I bringing that up? Because each day God's going to be doing something. Something new, something different.

He's conforming us more and more into the image of his son. He's the Potter where the clay each day is going to have a new work. He's shaping us sanctifying us and as uncomfortable as that sounds, that's actually good news. Maybe someone this applies, but maybe someone came in discouraged this morning and you've been fighting like the same temptation or wondering like why am I not further along or you're comparing yourself to another believer and You'd probably hear Paul say I'm no one.

If he's trying to compare himself to another believer and be like, I want to be like them. Paul would say God isn't finished. He has a work for you that he's doing sanctification is a lifelong journey. I want to point out that word. I said until it says that he who began a good work in you is will perfect it until the day of Christ. It's not okay. Christ is coming.

I need to clean up my act and here he comes. All right, God, I'm ready. Or once you see the finish line, it's like, okay, now I'm going to clean myself up. Now I'm going to get ready. No, it's each and every day until Christ comes. We're being conformed more and more towards him. So what's a statement to sum this all up? It's a sentence that I try to wrote down that gives a picture the Christian life.

Is it sustained by your grip on God? It's sustained by God's grip on you. The Christian life isn't sustained by your grip on God. It's sustained. By God's grip on you. Every time we drive a car. If we try to put our hands on the steering wheel and take it from Jesus, we're going to go in crazy directions. What if we let him have that steering wheel? Let him guide us.

He's going to take us exactly where it's supposed to go. So question is, where's your confidence this morning? Is it in yourself and your Bible reading your consistency your discipline your performance or is it God's faithfulness? Paul isn't inviting us to have confidence in ourself. He's inviting us to have confidence in the God who never quits. So let's look at the flow verse 1 Paul talks about his identity versus 3 to 5 gratitude.

Joy prayer partnership verse 6 confidence. Then we should think where do you gratitude joy partnership and confidence come from all these awesome qualities that Paul is displaying? And telling the Philippians that they're doing a good job about. They come from a life captivated by Christ. Paul isn't just teaching us theology. He's letting us look inside of a man who's been completely transformed by Jesus Christ.

That's the message behind this entire letter. So let's keep going versus 7 to 8. I'll read through it and then we'll break it down for it is only right for me to feel this way about you all. Because I have you in my heart since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. You are all. Partakers partakers of Grace with me. Okay, this is one of the verses that I'm like,

oh, because what Paul's saying is like, well, of course, of course, I'm going to be thankful for you. Of course, I'm confident. God's going to begin this work and finish it. It's only right for me to feel this way about you all. Why? Because I have you in my heart. That made me think, okay, this is interesting. Paul doesn't say I have you in my ministry. I have you on my prayer list.

He doesn't say I have you on my mind. He says, I have you on my heart. But what does that mean? Paul simply didn't come to minister to people. He genuinely loved people. You can do ministry. You can be trying to do the right thing. Check the right boxes and serve, but not actually care, not actually love. That's a dangerous thing. Okay. One of the places I was going to have us go is first Corinthians chapter 13.

It talks all about love. But today's communion Sunday. So I think I'm running out of time to do that. But first Corinthians talks so much about love and what it is and what it is. It's patient. It's kind. It's enduring. And I bring that up because a question is do we love people? Or do we simply work around people? It's possible to serve in church without caring about the people in your heart.

It's possible to volunteer without truly loving. A difficulty that I have when I come to study and that my mom is very gracious. I asked her to critique my teaching and she says, I often sound like I'm just giving a TED talk. I'm really trying to work on that because I don't want it to be a TED talk. The biggest challenge is getting information from this book into my head,

letting it go the 18 inches from my head to my heart. Like if I'm just giving this information and not actually like living it out or loving people, there's no point in it. Like who cares what I have to say if it's not lived out. It's going in one ear and out the other. And that's a challenge because the more you read and study and the more I'm like, wow, Paul's this great dude.

It's like, okay, I want to be like Paul. And then if I just try my hardest and study more but not actually say, Lord Jesus, help me to love people like how you love, I can truly have a heart captivated by Christ and live a life captivated by Christ. I choose to focus on Christ. I'm not paying attention to the other things that are around. So Paul says a little bit further down,

both in my imprisonment and the defense and confirmation of the gospel. The Philippians stayed with Paul, even when things weren't going well. They supported him before prison, during prison. They sent Epaphroditus. They sent gifts, prayed, partnered. So I like to give those like wrap-up kind of thoughts that hopefully give some clarity to what we've been talking about.

The one I have for this section is Christian love isn't built on perfect people. It's built on shared grace. Christian love isn't built on perfect people. It's built on shared grace. And I say that because if we're serving people, that means that they're fallen. It means that they sinned, that they're going to offend us. And if I understand the amount of grace that God has shown me,

when I'm serving other people, I can send that same amount of grace to other people. So Christian love isn't built on perfect people. It's built on shared grace. Why? Paul says, you are all partakers of grace with me. Not partakers of success, not of personality, not of comfort, but grace. Everyone at the foot of the cross, standing on level ground. That's the church.

Not a gathering of people, a group of people who have been rescued by grace. So it's made me think about our own church. One of the things I've appreciated since coming here is watching people quietly support each other. A healthy church is vibrant when people come in and they talk and intermingle and ask, oh, how are you doing? Hey, how can I pray for you?

And it's almost overwhelming when you first come to a church that's like that because it's like, okay, wow, I just was coming to expect to hear a message and then, you know, go get breakfast and go about my day. But when people are like actually engaged in your life, there's a sense of accountability too. Like, okay, well, I'm going to have to be honest. Hey, how are you doing?

Well, you know, this week was crazy. This week was tough. And it's people quietly showing that they care about each other. Praying for one another, serving. And I guess I just have an encouragement. Let's keep being that church. It's such a wonderful thing. Keep finding ways to serve, pray, offer encouragement because we need it. Life's not easy. So think about this week, who you can encourage, who you can pray for.

Someone comes to your mind, act on it. It's challenging. It's difficult because then that means taking time to actually invest into that relationship. But if you want to live a life that's captivated by Christ, you have to have a heart that's captivated by Christ. And guess what? There's something—oh, there's a verse. Philippians 2.13. I want to just bring this up real quick.

It says, It is God who is at work with you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Both to will and to do. If you don't want to do it, that's okay. God knows. He knows where people are stubborn. If you don't want to do it, pray to him and say, God, give me the desire. Because he will. He's saying, I will give you both the will and the operation and the actual action of doing it.

So if it's like, man, I don't want to be patient right now. I don't want to be kind. God knows. That's okay. Just be real. God, I don't want to be patient. I don't want to be kind. Help me, Lord, to live how you want me to. Then he'll help you. Both have the desire and then to execute it. So let's go on. Verse 8 says, For God is my witness how much I long for you with the affection of Christ.

That's a big statement. How much I long for you with the affection of Christ. Do you know how much Christ loves you? I mean, for Christ to love the world, to give his only begotten son, he went to the cross. Like for Paul to say that I long for you with all the affection of Christ, that's a big statement. And I don't know how you can say that because I don't think I love people that much if I'm being honest.

I can love the people that are easy to love, but the difficult ones, how is he longing for them with the affection of Christ? And I think it's a key verse. He says, I long for you. Not just I miss you. Not just I hope you're doing well. I long for you. Where did Paul get love like that? Not his personalities. Not just the great loving guy. Not his compatibility.

Not just because him and the Philippian church got along. Not because the Philippians were easy people. Where did he get it? Going back to the whole theme, Christ loved them through Paul. Do you realize what Paul is saying? He's not merely saying, I love you. He's saying, Christ has changed my heart that now I love you with his affection. Christ has worked in me that I can love you

with the love that Christ has for you. You don't have enough love on your own. None of us do. But Paul is saying, Christ has given me that love. It's miraculous. So here's kind of sum up sentence. The goal of Christianity isn't merely learning to love people better. It's allowing Christ to love people through us. The goal of Christianity isn't merely learning to love people better.

It's allowing Christ to love people through us. Christianity isn't about becoming nicer, a more pleasing person to be around. It's becoming so captivated by Christ that his love begins flowing through our lives. that his love begins flowing through our lives. So if you feel like you're lacking love in your life, a question would be, is your life captivated by Christ?

And if not, ask him, Lord, help me to love people better. Help me to be so captivated by you that I can love because love isn't based on convenience or personality. It's patient and steadfast, the kind of love only the Holy Spirit can produce in us. So let's wrap it up, 9 to 11. Here we go. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment

so that you may approve the things which are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Okay, finally reached the end of this section and we get to hear what Paul is finally actually wanting to pray. And it makes me think, okay, like Paul's praying. When I think of praying someone, like what's the things that you start praying about them for?

Like I think of their situation, like Lord, help them through this difficult time. Lord, help them figure out their next steps, what they're supposed to do. I mean, I start praying for their circumstances. I start praying for what is going on for them. But Paul doesn't. He begins to pray for their hearts. He says that, that your love may abound still more and more.

Paul doesn't, this is a church that he planted. He's not saying, Lord, help them become more successful. Help their church to get bigger. He prays, I hope that your love would grow. And that tells us what mattered most to Paul. So I want to ask a question. When you're praying for people, what do you pray for? Do you pray for their circumstances? Or do you pray for their love

and compassion for Christ to grow? Paul doesn't stop. He doesn't stop at love. He qualifies it. He says in real knowledge and all discernment. Let me stop this week because Paul isn't praying for emotional love. He's praying for wise love.

This is like, love isn't just an emotion. It's not a feeling. Because if you just love the whole time, there's things that we really shouldn't love. Like if a girl and a girl love each other in a relationship, you can love the individual people, but you're not supposed to love what they do. I can't love the decisions you're making or the lifestyle you're living.

I'm going to love you by telling the truth because I care about you, but I can't approve the way you're living. So our love has to be both sincere, but also wise. We have to have discernment in our love because sometimes love encourages, it corrects, sometimes it waits. And love isn't just sentiment. So summary sentence, Christian love isn't merely heartfelt,

it's wise. If you want to look more into love, 1 Corinthians chapter 13. So question for us today. When we come to church and we learn more about the Bible, are we simply learning more? Are we learning how to love more? Are we learning what God wants us to do? Or are we just learning what we should and shouldn't do? Because true love has both truth and discernment.

And that's maturity, which is leading into the next point of, verse 10, so that you can approve the things that are excellent. I think it's interesting that Paul doesn't say this so that you know what's wrong. Honestly, that's kind of where we first start off in our Christian walk. Okay, what's wrong and not wrong? What's good and not bad? What's right and what should I not?

But Paul's not saying just what's right or wrong. He's saying, choose what is excellent. There's decisions in life that we'll face that, hey, it's not just black and white. It's good and better. This challenged me because sometimes we ask, well, what can I get away with instead of what honors Christ the most? And that's maturity. So there's the final kind of gold star sentence

that we're going to say. Maturity isn't simply learning to avoid evil. It's learning to recognize what's excellent. Then we get to verse 11. Paul brings everything back to where it started. Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes by having been, oh, wow, I just read this sentence twice. Having been filled with righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ,

the glory and praise of God. Who fills us? Christ. Who produces the fruit? Christ. Who receives the glory? God. Everything comes through Christ. If you want to have a life captivated by Christ, we have to have our heart captivated by Christ. And that's how we can be truly satisfied in Jesus. So as we read through Philippians, we want to admire Paul less and admire what Christ has done in Paul.

He's the example we should want to follow. So overview. Verse one, we saw that a life approved by Christ finds its identity in him. A life captivated by Christ overflows with gratitude, joy, and prayer. A captivated life trusts in God's work. Captivated life in verses seven and eight cares about people. It loves. Verses nine and 10, a captivated life, it desires wisdom, discernment, spiritual maturity,

not just avoiding evil, but choosing what is excellent. And verse 11, a captivated life lives for the glory of God. So as the ushers get ready to bring the kids in for communion Sunday, and grace comes up to lead us in worship, to close out, a question for you guys. Is your heart captivated by Christ? Does your life show that your heart is captivated by Christ?

Truly being satisfied in Jesus doesn't come from just your circumstances, being nice, being pleasant. Paul was in prison writing this letter. Thinking back on how the Philippians have loved him and supported him. And he's very content. He's satisfied. Why? Because his heart's captivated by Christ. So I'll pray this out. Lord, I pray that whatever I said falls away.

Lord, and whatever you wanted to stick remains. Father, ultimately, we want to be satisfied in you. You are everything and we want to adore you. Lord, so allow our lives to be captivated by Christ. Lord, allow our hearts to be captivated by Christ. Lord, to be so in love with you that we just want to live out what you've shown us, what you've taught us. Lord, so thank you for today.

Thank you for teaching me these lessons through your word. Lord, I pray that you teach your people, Lord, throughout the week this week. As we get ready for communion, Lord, I pray that you prepare our hearts and minds to remember the sacrifice that you've done. Lord, help us to be so satisfied in you. Amen. Praise Jesus. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right. As the kids come in,

if you have a kid, go ahead and flag them down. But ushers will come in. They'll grab the cups up here. And what we'll do is we'll do a song of worship. Prepare your hearts. If there's sin in your life, if there's things you need to deal with, unfortunately, I'm going to have to say this isn't for you. You need to deal with that first. The cup can come around.

You can hold it and keep it just so it looks like you're taking it. But if there's something you need to get right, get right with the Lord. It's uncomfortable. It's weird. But if you want your life to be captivated by Christ, let him captivate your heart. So join us in this song of worship. Find your kid and flag him down. The ushers will come and pass it out.

And then we'll go through a section of scripture that talks about the communion. So once your kid comes, or if you don't have a kid, you guys can stand up, join us in this last song, and really prepare your heart before the Lord. Let's worship.

It's actually so much more.

And it said, this is my body, remembrance of me. Father, we thank you that you loved us so much. Lord, Paul talks about having the affectionate love of Christ. You loved us so much that you went to the cross. Lord, that despite our faults, despite our sins, Lord, despite how many times we take our hands onto that steering wheel, Lord, you're still there. You're patient with us

until the day of Jesus Christ. We thank you that you went to the cross and shed your body for our sake. You may partake. Also after supper, saying, this is a cup in the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me until he comes. Take this cup. Lord, and we thank you for your blood. Lord, what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Lord, we thank you.

Perfect life. Lord, and still choose to obey the Father. Have a heart so committed to what he did his will the whole time. To remember these things, to be busy, to think about your business, proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes. So we thank you for your blood. It is in Jesus' name. Be blessed. Have a happy Sunday. And I pray that something ministered to you

through this message and that we get to hear about it when we do greeting next week of how you lived it out. So have safe travels. We love you guys. Jesus loves you, made you on purpose, for a purpose, and with a purpose. Amen. Amen. Be blessed.