Monday, November 1, 2010

The Victorious Church

I thought that I would share my notes from church yesterday with you. We are in the midst of studying Philippians, and this week our pastor taught on Philippians 1:22-30. His sermon was titled "The Victorious Church", because we have victory in Christ and through Christ (1 Cor. 15:57, 2 Cor. 2:14, and Rom. 8:37)

There are 4 necessities for victory listed in these verses: serving, standing, striving, and suffering. So he talked a little about each one.

1. Serving each other
(Philippians 1:21-22)
Fruit is the expression of life. Just as grapes come from a grapevine, Spiritual fruit comes from the Spirit. Serving is something that Jesus did, and if we love Him we will follow His example.
John 15:8, Romans 15:28, Galatians 5:22-23, 1 Corinthians 16:15, Hebrews 13:15 and 6:10

2. Standing together
(Philippians 1:23-27)
We need to live in a way that is consistent with the Gospel. Does your life reflect the Gospel?
We need to stand in unity and in love, and we need to stand firmly together.
Philippians 3:20 and 4:23, John 13:35, and Ephesians 4:1-3

3. Striving on purpose
(Philippians 1:28)
We need to strive together and strive on purpose. We can't stand together if we don't all have the same purpose in mind.
Ephesians 4:1-3, 1 Peter 3:15, Jude 3, 2 Timothy 1:7, 2 Timothy 1:14, and Psalm 73

4. Suffering in grace
(Philippians 1:29-30)
We suffer for a reason, God always has a purpose. (similar to the suffering a coach puts his team through in practice. Drills and whatnot...)
"The more a diamond is cut, the more it sparkles" - Anonymous
Acts 16:16, Philippians 3:10, 1 Thessalonians 3:3, Matthew 5:10, 2 Corinthians 12:10, and my favorite Romans 5:3-4

A victorious church will serve each other, stand together, strive in a purpose, and suffer in grace.

We closed our service by sining this song, which I love, and it really impacted me after this particular service. I love they always pick music that is related to our sermon. It just makes it more meaningful!


(Instead of sining "I" we sang "We")

*To hear this sermon please click here.

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