SPEAKER_01
0:20 All right, welcome back. 0:21 Day four. 0:22 Philippians 27 and following. 0:24 We're going to hone in on verse 29, but I want to read it in context again. 0:28 Part of the reason I'm reading this every day this week is because I want you to get familiar with this. 0:33 One of the best ways to memorize Scripture is to just read the same scriptures over and over and over. 0:39 Paul says this only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent I may hear of you, that you are standing firm in one spirit and w with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. 0:58 This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. 1:03 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. 1:18 Verse 29, for it has been granted to you this is a gift. 1:23 Not only that you believe for the sake of Christ, that God wants you to believe. 1:28 That is the beginning, no doubt. 1:30 But it is a gift of God granted to you for the sake of Christ, that you also should suffer for his sake. 1:37 What does it mean to suffer for the sake of Christ? 1:40 Well, Jesus says if you want to follow me, that you've got to take up your cross daily. 1:46 That's right, take up your cross. 1:48 That didn't mean you just wear a little cross around your neck or do the sign to the crucifix. 1:52 That's not what that means. 1:54 That to be a follower of Jesus in and of itself is painful. 1:58 It is suffering. 1:59 Why? 2:00 Because every single day it's a crucifixion of your own flesh. 2:03 It's a crucifixion of your desires. 2:06 It's a crucifixion of your will and following His. 2:10 You see, if you were going to stand up and act like a man, you will suffer. 2:15 And this is a radical message in a culture that pursues comfort as its highest priority. 2:21 A part of the way that you will suffer as a man is this is you will take responsibility for things that are not your fault. 2:27 Like we're supposed to bear one another's burden. 2:30 In fact, there's too much talk about fault in the church these days. 2:34 Men don't say that's not my fault. 2:35 Men say, I'll take care of that. 2:38 Men, in fact, Ephesians 5 says that we are to love our wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. 2:43 And how did Christ ultimately love the church? 2:46 He laid down his life. 2:48 He suffered, he bled, he died. 2:50 That's how we are to love our wives. 2:53 Proverbs 24, 17 says, the righteous man falls down six times, but he gets up every single time. 2:59 The life of the believer is suffering. 3:03 The birthmark of the Christian is that of a bullseye. 3:06 And the reality is this the level at which a man is useful to God is directly related to the pain that he can endure. 3:13 If you can't suffer, you cannot follow Christ. 3:16 I mean, think about this. 3:17 What it means to be a follower of Christ is that you just follow the leader. 3:22 And where did he go? 3:23 He went to a cross. 3:25 He suffered an excruciating death. 3:28 He was beaten, he was flogged, he was crowned with a crown of thorns, and then he was nailed to a cross, and he is our leader and we follow him. 3:37 A.W. 3:37 Tozer says, it is doubtful whether a man can be blessed by God until he is greatly hurt by him. 3:45 Chuck Swindah says it this way When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible man and he crushes him. 3:52 So leave room for the crushing. 3:56 Men, if you want to be a Jesus follower and you want to have any kind of impact for the kingdom of God, then you must understand it has been granted to you for the sake of Christ that you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. 4:12 And the reality is the thing that makes you a man, a man of God, is not simply that you experience suffering. 4:19 If you experience suffering because of your own dumbness, hey man, just welcome to earth. 4:24 But what makes you a man of God is that you can endure and even persevere through the pain in accordance with what God has called you to do. 4:34 One of the clearest pictures we see of this is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. 4:38 Gethsemane literally means the place of crushing. 4:41 It's the night that he will be arrested, he will be put on trial, he will be beaten. 4:45 And he goes before his father. 4:46 He is sweating like drops of blood. 4:49 And he says, Father, if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me. 4:55 And what he's talking about is enduring the cup of the wrath of God stored up against all sin and sinners. 5:02 And then he says, Not my will, but your will be done. 5:07 And so, when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we should fear no evil, because the suffering Christ is right there with us. 5:18 For it has been granted to us that for the sake of Christ, we should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.