Moody Church Hour

Pastor Philip Miller: These days, life can get pretty complex. So much so that some people find it hard to cope. It's good to remind ourselves of foundational truth to hang onto. From Chicago, welcome to the Moody Church Hour with Pastor Philip Miller. Stay with us for a time of worship and teaching as we begin a new series on Back to the Basics. There is no better place to begin than by grasping the basics of the Gospel. And we'll do that from Philippians chapter 1. Here now is Pastor Philip and Worship Leader, Tim Stafford.

Tim Stafford: Well, good morning, everyone and welcome to the Moody Church. We're so glad you've joined us for worship today. As we look at what it means to get back to the basics of the Gospel. The Gospel that gives us life, the Gospel that has saved us, the Gospel that has drawn us here today. So as we begin, would you pray with me? Let's pray.

Tim Stafford: Father, we thank you for the Gospel. The truth that Jesus Christ has died in our place and for our sake and saved us and has reconciling all things to You through Himself, through His blood shed on the cross. We are here because we are Gospel people. Let us never forget who we are and where we stand. Remind us today. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Pastor Philip Miller: Amen. Let's sing about the mercy of God.

Tim Stafford: Amen. Have you experienced God's mercy today?

Tim Stafford: Thank you, Lord. God's mercy is great. It's bounding. It's new every morning. I'd like to read for you now from 1 Peter chapter 1 about how the Gospel shapes our lives. Would you please stand as we read God's holy word together?

Guest (Male): Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Guest (Female): In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Philip Miller: In 1961, at the start of training camp, Vince Lombardi walked into the locker room of the Green Bay Packers and spoke what would become one of the most iconic lines in all of sports history. "Gentlemen, this is a football." He was reminding them of the fundamentals, getting back to the basics. Because it's easy to forget the basics. It's easy to neglect the core disciplines of the game that make for a winning team. And Vince Lombardi knew that no amount of trick plays or player talent would be enough if they didn't master the very basics of the game.

Pastor Philip Miller: And the same thing is true, friends, of the Christian life. If we want to be joyously in love with Jesus, if we want to be filled with the fruit of the Spirit, if we want to be growing together as the family of God, it doesn't matter how many fancy conferences we go to, or how many of the latest books we read or podcasts we consume, if we aren't engaged in the very basics of the life of following Jesus, it won't matter. All of us, whether we've been following Jesus one day or a lifetime, need to remember the basics, get back to basics. And I know of no better place to go to remind us of the basics of the life of following Jesus than the Apostle Paul's letter to the Philippians. Philippians is all about getting back to the basics.

Pastor Philip Miller: The basics of following hard after Jesus. The basics of living in the power of the Holy Spirit. The basics of the interdependencies of the life of the family of God. So grab your Bibles. We're going to be in Philippians chapter 1 as we kick off our series today. We're going to look at the first 18 verses. You'll find today's reading on page 980 in the blue pew Bible there by your knees. Today, we're going to get back to the basics of the Gospel. The basics of the Gospel. Because for followers of Jesus Christ, the Gospel, the good news that God is reconciling all things, including us, to Himself through His son, Jesus Christ, that Gospel, that good news is the news that changes everything. The Gospel changes everything.

Pastor Philip Miller: And today we're going to see four fruits of the Gospel for our lives today. We're going to see how the Gospel creates a Gospel family. It creates Gospel charity. It gives us a Gospel destiny, and it gives us a Gospel priority. A Gospel family, a Gospel charity, a Gospel destiny, and a Gospel priority. Would you bow your heads? Let's go to the Lord as we open His word. Father, would you be with us now? Teach us what it means to get back to the basics of following Jesus Christ. This year, filled with chaos, has unhinged so many of us, knocked us off course and messed up our rhythms. We need to get back. Teach us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Pastor Philip Miller: First, we see here a Gospel family. A Gospel family. Philippians chapter 1, verse 1. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Just pause for a moment here. The Apostle Paul and his protege, Timothy, are writing this letter to a church that they planted in the city of Philippi about a decade earlier. Paul came to Philippi on what we call his second missionary journey around 8049. You can read about this in Acts 16.

Pastor Philip Miller: He now writes this letter about a decade or so later, 60 to 62 AD, while under house arrest in Rome. And in many ways, this letter is a thank you note. You know the ones your mom made you write? This is a this is a thank you note. The Philippians had heard that Paul was in prison, so they took up an offering to help with his expenses and to stand in solidarity with him. And they sent one of their own, a guy named Epaphroditus, to bring to Paul a care package, a journey that would have been over 800 miles. And on this seven-week journey, it took its toll on Epaphroditus's life, and upon arrival, he had to be nursed back to health because he fell gravely ill in travels. But now, having sufficiently recovered from his illness, Epaphroditus will head back to Philippi with this letter of thanks in hand, a letter we call the book of Philippians.

Pastor Philip Miller: It is addressed here to the Philippian congregation, the church, and to their leadership, the overseers, the elders, and the deacons. And in customary Pauline fashion, he extends his greetings with the phrase, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." The customary Jewish greeting, of course, was Shalom, peace. And so Paul has that, but he leads with grace. Because it is by grace that we have peace with God, our Father, through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Now, verse 3.

Pastor Philip Miller: I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you, all, making my prayer with joy. Because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. I love this. He says, "I thank my God and all my remembrance of you." You remembered me. You sent me a gift. Now I remember you. I remember you in my prayers, and I'm full of thanksgiving. I I think Paul would have remembered someone like Lydia.

Pastor Philip Miller: Lydia was a businesswoman from Thyatira. She was a dealer in high-end fashion goods. She marketed beautiful clothes for beautiful people. She was wealthy and influential, and she had been captivated by the beauty of the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul would have remembered the demon-possessed slave girl, who was poor and oppressed, without rights or freedoms, who had been commercially exploited by her owners, who had been liberated by the power of Jesus Christ. Paul would have remembered the the jailer, the suicidal jailer, whose life had been spared by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He and his whole household had found life in Jesus. All of these faces and others from Acts 16 would have flashed through Paul's mind, and he offers with each one a prayer of thanks. Gratitude that this group of disparate people, who otherwise would have had nothing in common, had been brought together as a family by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Philip Miller: He says, "I make my prayer with joy." Why? "Because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now." He's like, "We're no longer strangers. We're partners." Our lives, our pursuits, our destinies, our all our bound together with one another. We're joined together in partnership in the Gospel from the first day you believed and cast all your hopes on the good news that Jesus Christ had died in your place and for your sake and offered His life to pay for your sin and shame so that you might be adopted into the family of God and made right with Him forever. Would you believe that Gospel? From that day on, we became partners, partners in this great work of what God is doing in our lives and through our lives in the world. We became partners in the Gospel. God knit our souls together deeply, permanently. He bound us to one another, and He united us as a forever family in Christ. And this is just the beginning.

Pastor Philip Miller: It's just the beginning. Verse 6. "And I'm sure of this that he who began this good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." What God began, He will finish. God never drops the ball. This Gospel that has taken hold of our lives, he says, "This beauty that captivated your soul. This freedom that God has won for you. This life that God has redeemed." This is just the beginning, and the best is yet to come because one day we will see Jesus. Amen. "And we shall be like Him. For we will see Him as He is." This 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?

Pastor Philip Miller: 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 be 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 this is a Gospel family.

Pastor Philip Miller: 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, 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.

Pastor Philip Miller: Secondly, we see here our Gospel charity. Our Gospel charity. Verse 7. 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 all for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. Friends, look 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.

Pastor Philip Miller: 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 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.

Pastor Philip Miller: 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.

Pastor Philip Miller: 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 hearts affections? Will we allow the Gospel to realign our hearts affections? 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?

Pastor Philip Miller: Thirdly, we see our Gospel destiny here. Our Gospel destiny. Verse 9. 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 and overflow, that it would be unfettered and unlimited and undeniable.

Pastor Philip Miller: 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.

Pastor Philip Miller: 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 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.

Pastor Philip Miller: 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. 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.

Pastor Philip Miller: 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.

Pastor Philip Miller: A Gospel family. Our Gospel charity. Our Gospel destiny. Finally, our Gospel priority. Our Gospel priority. Friends, not only does the Gospel bind us together as a family, giving us the affection of Christ as we spur one another on toward this glorious destiny we have in Him, but the Gospel becomes the priority for which we live and even sacrifice. Look at verse 12.

Pastor Philip Miller: I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel. So that it's become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard, and to all the rest, that my imprisonment is for Christ. Most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord because of my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Pause for a moment. He says, "Look, my imprisonment might look like a huge setback for the Gospel, but in fact, it's it's just the opposite. Everybody here knows that it's because of Christ that I'm in prison. There's an Imperial Guard here, roughly 8 to 9,000 soldiers who guard the palace of Caesar. And they know that I'm here because of Jesus."

Pastor Philip Miller: Not just them, but everybody. Everybody's talking about Jesus. This Jewish carpenter from an insignificant nation, some 1,400 miles east of the bustling capital city of Rome, in the heart of the great Roman Empire. This Jewish carpenter turned teacher and rabbi, who laid down His life and is rumored to have come back in resurrection power, because of Paul's imprisonment, is now a topic of conversation at the heart of the Roman Empire, in the palace of Caesar Himself. So, not only is the Gospel advancing in Rome, it's advancing everywhere. Paul says, "People everywhere are preaching the Gospel." Some who have seen my willingness to suffer on behalf of the Gospel are emboldened to speak the word fearlessly, with courage and resolve. At least that's most people.

Pastor Philip Miller: But there are others, others who see in Paul's imprisonment an opportunity. A chance, you know, Paul's a big preacher, and all of a sudden he's locked up. Here's our chance. Here's our chance to gain influence and expand our reach and shine and draw some crowds and gain some recognition for ourselves. That's pretty messed up. And Paul could have been bitter and resentful and cynical. But he's not. Look at verse 15. "Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do so of in love, knowing that I'm put here for the defense of the Gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment." What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

Pastor Philip Miller: Paul says, "Look, regardless of their motives, good, bad, ugly, the bottom line is that Christ is being proclaimed, and I rejoice in that." Because the Gospel empowers us for unselfish mission. The Gospel empowers us for unselfish mission. The most important thing for Paul was not his comfort, friends. It was not his freedom. It was not his rights. It wasn't even his ministry or his vindication or even his life itself. No, the most important thing for Paul was the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That the name of Christ was being lifted high, that the good news was being proclaimed in all the world, that many more people might have a chance to know and follow Christ. Friends, the Gospel teaches us to gladly serve and sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel. The question is, will we allow the Gospel to reprioritize our lives?

Pastor Philip Miller: Will we allow the Gospel to reprioritize our lives? Will we allow the Gospel to become the the most important thing in our lives? Will we gladly serve and sacrifice that the Gospel may go forth? Will we cheerfully give up our time and talent and treasure that others might hear the good news of Jesus, so that they too might become part of a Gospel family, filled with a Gospel charity, called to a Gospel destiny, to live out a Gospel priority.

Pastor Philip Miller: Friends, this is the Gospel. This this is the good news of Jesus Christ that changes everything. Will you allow this Gospel to change your everything? That's the question. This is the Gospel.

Pastor Philip Miller: Let's pray. Father, in this chaotic, crazy world, where there is so much clamoring for our attention, for our time, for our emotions. Sometimes we might feel like Paul, trapped, unable to do the things that we want to do in life. Father, in this crazy moment, help us get back to the basics of the Gospel. Help us to trust deeply that the good news of Jesus is the most important thing about our lives. That is who we are, that it defines our family, that it changes our hearts and binds us together in love and affection for one another in ways that don't make sense. And that together You have called us not to build little kingdoms on this earth, but to live for Your Kingdom and Your power and Your glory. That one day we will stand before You in glory. As Jesus says, "The righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father." Father, one day that will be who we are, for we will see Christ face to face, and we will be like Him.

Pastor Philip Miller: Help us to remember who we are, what family we belong to, what destiny is ours in Christ, and help us to put the Gospel at the very center of our priorities in this life. Father, we give you ourselves. We hold nothing back. Take us, use us, fill us, form us, change us, use us, multiply the Gospel through us in our lives and our words, in our acts of love and care and sacrifice. We give you ourselves. Unleash the Gospel through our lives, we pray, for Jesus' sake, to the glory and praise of God. And all God's people said, "Amen. Amen."

Pastor Philip Miller: On today's Moody Church Hour, we heard Pastor Philip Miller teaching on the basics of the Gospel, the first sermon in a series on Back to the Basics. Next week, don't miss some great teaching about the basics of life. Here, we'll find Paul in a Roman prison, not knowing his future, but still resilient, courageous, and undaunted. That attitude can and should be ours. Make plans to join us. What is the central calling for a believer in Christ? Erwin Lutzer tells us it's to be more like Christ. That's why he wrote a booklet titled, "Walking with Jesus: A Radical Return to His Priorities." This booklet is our gift to you, when you give a gift of any amount to support the Moody Church Hour. Call us at 1-800-215-5001. That's 1-800-215-5001. Online, go to moodychurchhour.com. That's moodychurchhour.com. Or write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Ask about Walking with Jesus when you write or call. Join us next week for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Philip Miller and the congregation of historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of the Moody Church.