Stand Firm: Cultivating A Christ-Confidence For Living
Stand Firm
Cultivating A Christ-Confidence For Living
Pastor Charlie Weir
Some fights are over real things and real feelings get hurt, but at the end of the day nothing beats a family that stands firm together.
Philippians 1: Bottom Line
Christ-Confidence and Christ-Courage are forged in trusting that Jesus will finish what He started in me and with me. Christ-courage and Christ-confidence position me to STAND FIRM no matter what my circumstance.
Revelation 7:9-10 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
Salvation doesn’t rewrite your story, you are the same person with the same past when you come to Jesus. Salvation redeems your story and puts you on a new trajectory one filled with resurrections, hope and a shared purpose.
Church “engagement” doesn’t negate your personal story it integrates it with others to magnify God’s glory and mobilize for God’s mission. Others become richer for your story, and you become wealthier from theirs and together a powerfully effective mission force is forged.
Philippians 1
Stand firm in Christ-Confidence and Christ-Courage.
Philippians 2
Stand firm by standing together.
Philippians 2:1-4 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
“Then do this for me, fill your dad’s heart with joy.
Be like-minded. (share the same values and same objectives)
Have the same love. (share the same posture towards one another)
Be one in spirit and of one mind. (allow your shared salvation experiences to unite you and forge a shared resolve)
Christian Unity
=
Shared values + Shared objectives + Shared posture + Shared experience + Shared resolve
The Path
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Don’t act with a motivation of personal gain or personal glorification.
Value others above yourself.
Consider how your words, decisions and actions will impact others before embarking on them.
The Message Bible and Eugene Peterson
“Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.”
The Person
Philippians 2:5-11 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
A “mind-set” is an anchored attitude that drives determined actions. Attitudes drive actions.
The Person of Jesus
1. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Standing firm together begins by taking the same mindset (nature/posture /predisposition) of servant!
The Person of Jesus
2. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Standing firm together begins by taking the same mindset of servant who humbly obeys His Father.
The Person of Jesus
3. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The Purpose
Philippians 2:12-18 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
Jesus is our person. Humble obedient service to and with one another is our path. Shining a light on Jesus is our purpose.
Our diversity of stories matter. They broaden people’s perspective of the power and reach of Jesus and they unite us together to Christ.
Our loving one another in obedient humble service matters. It exposes the dysfunction of the world by shining a light on the uniting power of Jesus.
Our shared purpose matters. God didn’t give the Great Commission to a person, He gave it to His Church. Our effectiveness depends on our unity.
Some fights are over real things and real feelings get hurt but at the end of the day nothing beats a family that stands firm together.