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Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. It's a real Shoy. To be with you today, would you turn in your Bibles, the Epistle of Joy. to Philippians chapter one. Book of Philippians.
Chapter one Do you ever feel like you're being watched? By unbelievers. Ever feel that unbelievers look at you and they analyze you and scrutinize you?
Well, if you ever get that feeling. You're right. That's what they're doing. And not only are they analyzing and scrutinizing you. They're criticizing you.
And probably more so now than ever before in American history, the Christian church. is being criticized by the unbelieving world. Every Christmas you hear The same stories about how kids can't sing silent night in a public setting. or throughout the year you hear about A Christian group who doesn't go along with the mainstream. Idea of sexuality, etc., and they're labeled as being intolerant and mean-spirited.
I was listening to the news yesterday and In North Carolina, The Board of Commissioners. Every year, get together, and for the last 50 years, it has been their practice to get together and open up. their public session with the Pledge of Allegiance. Followed by a prayer. It's been in their history a long time.
So they did it this time. They opened up their session with. Pledge of Allegiance and Prayer. But this time The ACLU is watching them. And filed a lawsuit against them because they prayed, and get this.
They said the worst thing of all you could say, they said at the end of the prayer, in Jesus' name.
So that became a violation. And a lawsuit was filed. And you know, I've been asked to pray publicly from time to time, and a couple of times people have said, Well, the only thing we're skittish about is if you use that term at the end in Jesus' name, you probably shouldn't use that. I said, So, do you want the prayer to work? I saw an article on CNN.com that admitted that Christians are becoming.
A hated minority. I hated minority. I've long had an article in my arsenal. About The neighbors that Americans don't want living next door. The article is called Not in My Backyard, and it's actually a little graph.
That shows This truth. It says, this is the percentage of Americans who do not like the following minorities. As neighbors, 1% say they don't want Catholics living next door. 2% don't want Protestants living next door. 3% don't want Jews living next door.
9% say they don't want Hispanics as neighbors. Then comes unmarried couples, then comes blacks. And finally, the bottom of the list, the highest percentage, 13%, say they don't want religious fundamentalists as neighbors. They especially hate bold believers. The kind that make a stand for what they believe.
Because bold believers You know, the kind that don't fold with the culture and just sort of go along with the flow. The bold believers, they're the ones that will be labeled narrow, myopic, bigoted. and biased. One website that I found, one honest atheist wrote, and I quote, I've considered myself an atheist for four or five years, and I feel a real hate of Christians. more so than any other religious cult.
And it's growing inside of me. I cannot just read a story or watch a video of a Christian without this huge fireball of impatience and anger coming up through my body. Close quote.
So who's intolerant? You ever feel like you're the missionary surrounded by cannibals? And the missionary noticed one cannibal staring intently at him and got really nervous and said, Why are you looking at me so intensely? And the guy said, I'm the food inspector. You sort of feel like the world is watching you because they want to gobble you up.
Well, Paul understood this dilemma. Paul understood that if you become a Christian and you follow Christ boldly, That the Christian life is not a playground, man, it's a battleground. He got that. He understood that. In fact, here's part of his resume.
In 2 Corinthians 11, he says, I've been in prison frequently. I've been flogged severely. I've been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews 40 lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods.
and once I was stoned. That's not Colorado stone. That's stoned with rocks.
Now, as we have been reading in the book of Philippians, this chapter, this book of joy. We saw that Paul begins by writing to the Philippians as saints. Paul and Timothy to the saints who are at Philippi in Christ Jesus. Then he writes to them as servants, those who enjoyed the fellowship of the gospel with him. They were partners in the gospel.
But now there is a shift.
Now he writes to them not as saints, not as servants, but as soldiers, as it were. And the focus of his letter, beginning in chapter 1, verse 27, turns from his. imprisonment to their predicament. And you'll notice by just the wording. In this little grouping of sentences.
The word adversaries appears or enemies. The word suffer shows up. And the word conflict is all in what we are about to read.
So, what I want to show you from this set of verses is how to stand for Christ when the world wants you to fall. Verse twenty seven Paul writes, Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
So that whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast. In one spirit. With one mind striving together for the faith. of the Gospel. And not in any way be terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation.
And that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him. but also to suffer for his sake. Having the same conflict which you saw in me. And now here is in me.
I want you to picture something in your mind. I want you to picture a man. And around him is standing a hostile crowd. The crowd does not like the man. The crowd is.
Yelling at him, shouting at him, threatening him. They're jeering and they're taunting. And they wish him ill. They want to see him gone. or hurt.
Now, with that picture in mind, I want to show you four qualities. On how to stand. And not fall in the midst of a hostile world. I want you to picture it sort of like a stool with four legs. Each leg will add a little more stability to the hole.
First, consistency. Consistency is the first quality. Verse 27. Paul says, only let your conduct Be worthy. of the gospel of Christ.
You see the word conduct. I'm going to give you a literal translation of it, then I'm going to explain of it. The word means your political affiliation. Don't think of politics in the terms of modern America. The Greek word is politio.
And polituo is the word by which we get our word polituo. Political or politics or policy or police, they all come from this word. Because polituo was all about the polis in ancient times. A polis is a city. Or more accurately, a city-state, a free state.
It's citizens that belong to a city-state. And they conduct themselves in a manner that represents the best of that state.
So the idea carries, the word carries the idea of being a good. Citizen. Honoring the political affiliation or the city-state that you're a part of. And what are we a part of? Chapter three will say: your citizenship is in heaven.
Heaven.
So the idea is let's conduct ourselves.
So that we are offering the very best of the kingdom of God. You know, wherever we travel, we represent our nation. whether we like it or not. You're an American. I don't know if you know what the reputation of Americans is around the world.
It's not favorable. in most cases. The loud American, the ugly American. There's several things that we are noted for around the world. And I remember on one trip I was on in India, I was with a group of people from different places.
And there was one group of guys that were very, very loud. And they were at a meal, and they were being laughing and loud and obnoxious. The Indians in that culture didn't know how to read these guys. They just sort of thought. I guess this is how Americans act.
You know, and I'm over in the corner, you know, with my head and my hands going, they don't represent the best my country has to offer, trust me. But they were representing their kingdom. They were conducting themselves in a certain way. Or, like the time I went to England and tried to sound like I was English. I tried really hard to come up with the best British accent.
I practiced it. I thought I had it down.
So we went to breakfast and I ordered in an English accent. And the Maitreye looked at me and said, And you're from California.
So, I must have given myself away either in my fake British accent or the mannerisms that I display.
So let your conduct Your display of your national identity. And notice what it says: let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. You're listening to Connect with Gip Heidzig. As 2025 comes to a close, generous support from friends like you is vital to keep Connect with Skip Heitzig strong in the year ahead, so more people can hear God's word and find real hope in Jesus. Your year-end gift today helps reach even more hearts with verse-by-verse teaching and resources that connect people with God's love.
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Now let's get back to today's teaching. The word worthy means to balance the scales. Or to weigh as much. That is, the weight on one side of the scales equals the weight on the other side of the scales. We use the word in that way.
We will say that person is worthy. of his pay. What we mean is The money we are giving that person corresponds or weighs as much as the output of the work. that he or she produces. If we say she is worthy of this honor, we are saying the accolades we give her.
Weigh as much or correspond to the productivity or the achievement that she has produced.
So, when Paul writes, let your conduct be worthy of the gospel, that's his way of saying that your practice. must match your proclamation. If it's like a set of scales, and on one side you say, well, this is what I believe, that's your proclamation. Your practice, what you do, needs to match up. needs to weigh as much.
And by the way, John the Baptist used this word. Like that. He said Bear fruits. worthy of repentance. If you say you have a repentant life, let's see it in what that life will produce.
So What Paul is doing here is calling us to a consistent Christian life. If you're called Christian. Then live up to the name. A Christian must never live beneath his theology. A Christian must never live beneath His belief.
I know that you've heard all the research statistics for years. Barner Research every year comes up with what Americans say they believe in. And every year, we're always astonished because every year we find out that a large majority of Americans say that they're Christian. And a lot of them say they're born-again Christians. But as I look at the American landscape, I just gotta say, it didn't quite weigh the same.
What they say we are isn't really what we are. There's got to be some inconsistency in that. Back in nineteen eighty six, Get this. And IRS 25-year auditor, a veteran of auditing for the IRS. Was arrested and convicted for.
Tax evasion. You know, that just gets to you, right? It's like, yeah, those are the guys that try to stiff me. You know, they're always bummed out about this little discrepancy. They audited me.
Well, this auditor thought. That he had found a loophole, that he had found a flaw in the system. He didn't. The system found a flaw in him. And when they found it, they fined him $115,000.
He was inconsistent. What he said he believed in and what he actually practiced in his personal life were vastly different. And John Bunyan put it this way: a man can be a saint abroad. and a devil at home. And if that is the case, then that is unworthy conduct.
It is inconsistent.
Now, let me turn that around. One of the greatest weapons you can use against the devil is a consistent life. A consistent life, a godly, consistent life. Not that God expects perfection, he does not. The Bible says he knows our frame that we are dust.
But he does expect that as citizens of the kingdom of God, of the kingdom of heaven, that we show a consistency in that. John says, 1 John chapter 1, verse 6, If we say we have fellowship with him, And we walk in darkness, we lie. And do not practice. The truth.
So simply put, Our lives must give proof That they have been touched by the gospel, by the good news about Jesus Christ. That's worthy of the gospel.
So here's a question. Is your life filled with love? Because the gospel is. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Is your life filled with forgiveness?
Because the gospel is Is your life filled with hope? Because the gospel is. Is your life filled with holiness? Because the gospel is. So consistency is the first Tool, weapon, strength.
That will help you stand when the world wants you to fall. Here's a second. Unity. Unity. He says, continuing on in verse 27.
So that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast. In one spirit, With one mind striving together, that's the unity for the faith. of the gospel.
Now, Paul doesn't know if he's going to live or die. He said that. I don't know if I'm going to live or die. I don't know if I'm going to be set free or stay incarcerated. I may come and see you, I may not.
But that doesn't matter. Whether I'm around or not does not matter. What matters is that whether I'm with you or not, you stand. Firm.
Now that's soldier talk. The word that Paul uses here in the imperative stekate. stand firm means Stand your post. Don't leave your guard. It speaks of a soldier who would stand his position even with the onslaught of tremendous opposition.
or temptation.
So go back to that little picture I put in your mind. Here's a man, there's a hostile crowd around him, he's standing. Maybe he's sort of standing upright in a relaxed position, but the crowd gets louder and closer. And so he does this. He widens his stance to give him more stability.
He's now going to stand firm, stand fast. He's not going to move his position. But He would be better served if he himself wasn't the only one standing fast, but he had a whole bunch of friends next to him kind of doing this, right? When you have other people standing with you, Your odds for victory increase. That's the thought of this verse.
Stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith. of the gospel.
I just got to say, there are some great metaphors in this section. Paul the Apostle uses some great words. The words for striving together. A single Greek word. Sun athle.
Sun, the prefix for together. Athle oh, we get the term athletic. or athlete from it.
So Come together as athletes, you might say. Strive and stand together. in this race as athletes. It is clear, it is evident, that Paul saw the church. As a team sport.
Not as some little private personal island experience that I have with God all by myself. No, he said, our team is in conflict. Our team is in a battle, and it takes team work. We have to stand together. We need unity.
No, I I would like to explain when the New Testament talks about unity, what it doesn't mean, and what it does mean. Unity in the Bible. doesn't mean necessarily unanimity. Where everybody thinks exactly the same. It doesn't necessarily mean uniformity where everybody acts exactly the same.
If you think that you're going to get every Christian to agree on every point of doctrine and style of worship, good luck. Not going to happen. Two. You may not agree with my view on certain things. You may not agree with my view on eschatology, the rapture of the church.
You may not agree with my view on spiritual gifts. You may not agree with my view on the election of the believer. And I always Give anybody the privilege to be wrong. You can believe whatever you'd like.
Somebody once said If you find two people that agree on everything, one of them is not thinking.
So, I think vigorous debate can be good, it can be healthy, can be helpful. As long as we don't divide over it. Can you imagine? If we could assemble the great Christian minds throughout the centuries and put them in one room together. For example, if we were to go back to the fourth century and get Augustine of Hippo, North Africa, who spiritualized so many texts of the scripture, put him in the room and sit next to him, the 10th century.
Bernard of Clairvaux. And for fun, let's add the sixteenth-century reformer John Calvin next to him. And then to really spice things up, we'll go to the 18th century. We'll get John Wesley, Charles Wesley, and George Whitfield. Just those three in and of themselves would be fireworks.
Then let's go to the 9th century and put in Charles Adden Spurgeon and D. L. Moody. We'll go to the 20th century, we'll put C.S. Lewis in that room and Billy Graham.
We'll go to the 21st century and put the likes of N.T. Wright in there. I'm going to tell you something. There is not going to be unanimity. On every single point, it'll be a very, very lively discussion.
But at the end of the day, what you will have is unity. When it comes to the essential historic Christian gospel. We're not much different than an athletic team. You've all heard of teams every season. The season starts out where there's bickering between some of the individual players on that team.
They're kind of out for their own glory, out for themselves. But as the season moves on and they near the playoff, They know they need to act together because victory is in sight. If they've made the playoff, they better give their best parts of who they are to the team so they can win the battle.
So, unity then doesn't mean uniformity or unanimity. It does, however, mean harmony. It means harmony. It means we choose to work together. We choose to cooperate over the essentials.
The essentials. I've always loved That little axiom from the Reformation, you've heard it. In essentials, Unity in non-essentials, liberty. In all things. Charity.
That was Jesus' passion. He prayed for unity. In his high priestly prayer, John 17, Jesus prayed that they all may be one. That they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Before you go, don't miss your opportunity to request the Daily God Journal, along with the companion digital devotional, the Daily God Book. These resources are our thanks for your generous year-end gift of $50 or more to help Connect with Skip-Heitzig finish 2025 strong and reach more people with the truth of God's Word in the year ahead. Call 800-922-1888 or go to connectwithskiff.com slash offer. Thanks for spending time with us today, and we'll see you next time on Connect with Skiff Heitzig. Make a connection!
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