Living Hope

Philip Miller: The gospel has not only bound us together as a family. Amen? The gospel has not only given us the affection of Christ for one another, but he does this so that the love of Christ might abound in our lives and sweep us along toward our common destiny of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God forever.

Larry McCarthy: Welcome to Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. I’m Pastor Larry McCarthy and we’re glad you’re with us today. The gospel changes us. And so you're telling us that we go back to basics. I love the title here. What does that all mean?

Philip Miller: Yeah. Well, we're right here at the beginning of Philippians. And Paul is in this opening series of sentences. He's reminding us and the Philippians, he's reminding them who they are. That they are a family that have been brought together into this uncommon unity in Christ. And that because of that diversity in the family of God, it requires that they start learning to love each other deeply from the heart.

It's stirring their affections not just for Christ, but for one another. And that process as our hearts are being changed is actually going somewhere. That it’s pushing us toward our ultimate destiny to be conformed to the image of Christ. That our lives might resemble the life of God in every way.

That we might shine in glory at the end. When we go to glory, we might actually have all the fullness of God. So this community of diversity forces us to learn to love beyond normal bounds and that's starting to literally help us take on the character of Christ as the Spirit leads us and guides us. So this is a glorious open to the book and it's really important to help us understand the work that Christ is doing in us and the destiny that he has for us.

Larry McCarthy: The gospel changes our affections. It changes our destiny. Let's go now to the pulpit of the Moody Church. This is part two of the sermon, The Basics of the Gospel. Our text, Philippians chapter one, verses one through 18.

Philip Miller: Friends, this is a gospel family. Rich and poor, slave and free, prisoners and jailers alike. People with nothing in common who are now united as partners in the gospel. God's own handiwork becoming together like Jesus himself. Friends, the gospel enfolds us into uncommon unity. Do you see that?

One of the ways you know the gospel is at work in your life or in the life of a community is it brings together people who would never otherwise have been together. That's one of the things I love about Moody Church. God has brought together here a beautiful family from all walks of life, from every socioeconomic strata, diverse ages and ethnicities. He has made us partners in the gospel by his grace.

You cannot explain a church family like ours except for the grace of God. Amen? This is God's doing. And we are partners in the gospel. This is a gospel family. But we have to live into it, you see? We have to live into it. The question is, will we allow the gospel to redefine our social circle? Will we allow the gospel to redefine our social circle?

Will we allow the gospel to make us partners with people we would otherwise avoid or despise? But now because of the grace of God, we have become our own gospel family. We have to yield to the work of the Spirit, you see. To the power of the gospel to live into what God has made, this gospel family.

Secondly, we see here our gospel charity. Our gospel charity. Verse seven. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart. For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Friends, look at the heartfelt emotion in these verses. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart. I yearn for you all. That's not a light word. I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. Even after a decade, friends, his heart is just full, warmed with affection for these dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

Because they're all drinking from the same fountain of grace, you see? It is the grace of God that moved the Philippians to extend generous compassion, a gift of love toward Paul. And it is that same grace now that moves Paul's heart in tender prayer on their behalf. Friends, these verses are full of deep affection, intense longing. They're visceral and emotive.

Paul knows that this deep affection flowing through his own heart comes ultimately from Jesus. That's the only place it could come from. He says, I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. So this is Paul's affection. I yearn. It's flowing from his own heart. And yet it is sourced ultimately in the affection and heart of Christ that is pouring through him toward the Philippian believers.

In other words, the gospel infuses in us unexpected affections. The gospel infuses in us unexpected affections. The gospel of grace, friends, forges deep connections between the members of the body of Christ. And we learn to love each other fervently from the heart. Having received the affection and charity and love of God lavished on us in Jesus Christ, that love received now begins to overflow through us so that we become conduits of the love of Christ for one another.

The gospel teaches us to love one another with the very love of Christ himself. We get to embody the love of Christ for one another. And as he loved us and gave himself up for us, so we are to love one another and give ourselves up for one another. The question is, will we allow the gospel to realign our heart's affections?

Will we allow the gospel to realign our heart's affections? Will we allow our hearts to turn—will we allow the gospel to turn our selfish hearts outward in love toward others? To bind our hearts together with affection and sacrificial self-giving love? Will we open ourselves wide to the affections that Christ intends to unleash through us for the sake of others? Will we yield to this gospel charity?

Thirdly, we see our gospel destiny here. Our gospel destiny. Verse nine. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

What a prayer this is, friends. He prays that your love, our love, that our love may abound more and more. That it might grow in you, multiply around you. That your love for God and love for one another would abound and overflow, that it would be unfettered and unlimited and undeniable. That your love would abound, he says, with knowledge.

Because love without knowledge is just sort of aimless and soft, isn't it? But love with knowledge is life-changing. It is wise and it is discerning. It is a love that sees what is excellent, what is true and good and real and beautiful. It is a love that propels us and urges us forward to become more and more like Jesus Christ himself.

That we might be pure and blameless. That we might stand before Jesus Christ full of the fruit of righteousness to the glory and praise of God. Do you see this abounding love? Growing knowledge. Full of all discernment so that we approve what is excellent and become pure and blameless and righteous to the glory and praise of God.

Don't you see the gospel, friends, is ushering us into unforeseen glories? The gospel is ushering us into unforeseen glories. The gospel has not only bound us together as a family. Amen? The gospel has not only given us the affection of Christ for one another, but he does this so that the love of Christ might abound in our lives and sweep us along toward our common destiny of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God forever.

And I'm sure of this, Paul would say, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. Friends, there's no higher end. No greater glory. No better dream than to stand pure and blameless and righteous before God in Jesus Christ. It is to this end that God is working in your life at all times and in all places and by all means.

Friends, listen to me. Listen. The aim of your life is not to build a nest egg. The aim of your life is not 15 seconds of fame on TikTok. The aim of your life is not leisure and fun. The aim of your life is that you might be gloriously like Christ. That you might stand before the Father in purity and blamelessness and righteousness and glory forever. Amen?

The question is, will we allow the gospel to refocus our dreams? Will we allow the gospel to refocus our dreams? Will we allow this vision of standing righteous in Christ before the Father in glory to become our prayer? To become our longing? To become the dream and aim of our lives?

Larry McCarthy: This is Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. I’m Pastor Larry McCarthy. We’re so glad you’re joining us today on this very important topic. Allowing the gospel to transform, refocus our dreams, our affections, our aspirations. I know some of our listeners are probably asking, Pastor Philip, how do I know if I’m allowing the gospel to refocus my dreams? How will I know that?

Philip Miller: Well, I think what happens for most of us is we live with this sort of self-oriented set of dreams in life. This is what I want. I want to get an education. I want to have a good job. I want to buy a house. I want to get married. I want to have kids. I want to have this kind of life. It’s a me, me, me sort of set of dreams.

Larry McCarthy: And some of those expectations are placed on us by family as well.

Philip Miller: That's true. That's true. So some of it is I'm pleasing other people because then I get their good pleasure and honor. But ultimately that's about me too about those things. So I think that's just our default. We tend to dream for ourselves primarily and then it can broaden out. We have dreams for our kids, we have dreams for our friends. So it's not always self-oriented.

But what happens I think, and this is what Paul is showing us, is that when the gospel comes in and starts changing the very core of our life and our story, we start realizing life is actually about way more than I thought it was. It's not just about having a bank account that's full or having a nice retirement or being comfortable or being able to buy the things I want.

That life is actually a much bigger story. That God in Christ has come and redeemed me and he has a destiny for me to stand in glory before the Father and to spend eternity in the love of God in a new heavens and new earth and all that. So that it opens up the trajectory of the story.

Instead of it just being about this 60, 70, 80 years that I have and being comfortable and having things provided, all of a sudden the gospel lifts the horizon of our eyes off of this temporary world. And we start to see life as it really is in light of eternity and what really matters.

And Jesus will say, you can’t serve both God and money. You can’t serve two masters. You’re going to love one and hate the other. What kingdom are you living for? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all this other stuff will be added to you. And so what the gospel calls us to is just this higher vision.

And then when you see that and believe that and trust in that and believe that’s the most real, most important story you could possibly live in, it starts to reframe the kinds of things that you dream about. So it just brings everything into perspective. So it’s not just the house I live in. I’m worried about my abode in eternity. I want to spend time with Jesus.

And it’s not just about what I can save and keep for myself. I’m actually worried about having treasure in heaven and I’m concerned with investing for eternity. So it starts just to change the way we dream and it starts to influence all the facets of our life.

Larry McCarthy: I really like that because I’m sure some of our listeners can relate to that. As God transforms your heart, some things that you used to want to do they just aren't important anymore. They lose their attraction. And I think the deception—correct me if I’m wrong—but we get calls from people and they write in to us and sometimes I think the deception is somehow I’m giving up a bigger, broader, loftier, certainly more lucrative thing if I’m not now going to do things for the cause of the kingdom so to speak. And that’s just a deception.

Philip Miller: It is because ultimately there are things that seem like short-term losses but in the end are long-term gains. And so yes, I might have to say no to a certain kind of pleasure now. But what I get in exchange in the end is more glorious and soul-satisfying than any—than that cheap imitation could have ever been.

If I give to the poor or I give to church like that’s money I can’t spend on myself, right? And so there’s a sense of loss there when I let go of those resources. But you know what? If I get more of Christ and I get eternal blessing, if I get to invest in things that matter beyond the shores of this world through the walls of eternity in glory, that’s actually a win. I don’t lose. I’m actually gaining.

And so I think what Paul’s inviting us to do is to recognize—is to so fill our heart and mind with the glories of what God is doing in the world and what we’ve been invited into and tethered to as a part of the gospel that it starts to just reframe the way we think about everyday life. And it doesn’t mean the dreams—there’s dreams that God gives us. They’re not inherently bad. I want to be a doctor. I want to be a good husband. I want to provide for my kids.

Larry McCarthy: I want to play in the NBA.

Philip Miller: You may need to give that one up like I do too. But you know some of those dreams are they’re good dreams. They’re just not meant to be idols that we live for and become so enamored with that they become the thing we’re living for in all of life. That’s what an idol usually is. It’s a good thing that we’ve loved way too much.

And so but what happens is when the gospel kind of reorders our loves and reorders our affections and helps us start to live into this bigger perspective is those dreams get redeemed and they get enfolded. And so God may call you to be a doctor. And he may call you to provide for your kids. But it’s not an end in and of itself.

It’s a means to a much bigger horizon. It’s not just about being a doctor and being well-thought of and honored by your peers and providing something of value and making money. That’s a career I can now use for the glory of God. It’s a part of the puzzle pieces of a bigger picture of what God’s doing to conform me to the image of Christ, to involve me in bringing healing and redemption and goodness into the world.

And it’s an area where I get to steward my resources: time, talent, and treasure for a bigger kingdom. That so it doesn’t necessarily take the dream away, but it redeems it, enfolds it into something even bigger. And that’s actually a huge win for us as well when we let the gospel do that.

Larry McCarthy: I hope our listeners will be encouraged. This is Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. You know in the contemporary workforce with the invasion of the virtual office, work is there 24 hours a day and sometimes if you’re doing a good job they may pull on you to we need you to work more hours or we need you to do more traveling.

If your affections have been changed, if your desires have been changed, sometimes you’re right you may have to say I’m going to pass on that little extra bit of money because it’s important for me to be at AWANA on Sundays or Wednesdays or to serve at my local church. I appreciate the affirmation but I can’t do it. It’s not the thing that’s driving me now. That’s what you’re talking about.

Philip Miller: And it frees you. It frees you from captivity to a dream that might demand way too much from you. You can actually now serve Christ through that dream and that frees you to actually be a much healthier, better person because your affections have changed. It’s changed your heart.

Larry McCarthy: You’ve okay you’ve used that term a couple of times here. When I think about affections I don’t know why I’m seeing Valentine’s Day and hearts. So help us with that. There’s a difference between affections and feelings. I know, but I want our listeners to be clear about what we’re talking about.

Philip Miller: So when we—emotions are superficial things. Those are the things we’re feeling. Affections are deeper. Affections are the things we long for and love and orient our will to achieve. When we talk about the gospel stirring our affections and changing our hearts, we’re talking about the deep core convictions of who we are and what matters in life.

The deep values and it’s what we love. We really are what we love. And so what happens in the gospel is our loves are changing. Yes. It’s not just about me and what I want and what I’m dreaming about and what I’m thinking about. The will has been fundamentally altered. The gospel’s dropped down and all of a sudden things are bigger.

The gospel is changing what matters and my heart starts being tethered to a bigger horizon: the work of Christ, the glory that he’s bringing into the world, the mission of God. I no longer live for myself. I’ve been bought with a price. I belong to Christ to live is Christ. And so the love of Christ compels me. And this is a process, right? It is.

But those are the affections we’re talking about. They’re being changed and it doesn’t happen just at once. It happens over time as the Holy Spirit leads us and guides us and molds us and shapes us and as the character of Christ is increasingly being born in our lives. That’s what’s going to change us. But it’s in this deep heart space that it’s going to happen.

And that’s what Paul’s talking about. That’s the transformation and that’s what gives us hope of glory because this is all going some place beautiful because of what Jesus is doing in our lives. I hope you’re encouraged. Next time we’ll talk about how the gospel transforms the core aspects of our time, our talents, our treasures, our resources.

And as we continue to follow Jesus we all need solid gospel-based help. That’s why the Living Hope team has something special ready for you during our current series. We’re offering the book by Warren Wiersbe. The title: Be Joyful. Even when things seem wrong you can have joy. I love that title. This is a powerful study through Philippians.

You know the apostle Paul wrote this letter with joy even while he was a Roman prisoner. Paul’s secret to joy is found in the midst of difficulties as he focused on his ultimate destiny. Going through each series of Philippians, this is a great resource for personal or group study with in-depth reflection, questions, and easy-to-understand style.

Dr. Wiersbe shows us how to be filled with lasting joy on our spiritual journey. Now this is the first time we’re offering Be Joyful for donation of any amount. To request your copy simply go to livinghopeoffer.com or call us at 1-800-215-5001. Thanks for joining us for Living Hope where you’ll always find gospel truth for the journey of a lifetime. Living Hope is a production of Moody Church Media and is sponsored by the Moody Church.