Life At The Ridge

We’ve been looking at these last few things Paul is teaching in chapter 4 to the church at Philippi. Vs 6-7 talk about anxiety or worry and how to deal with it properly. All of us have had an encounter with anxiety or worry. It creeps in our lives and causes us to worry over big and little things, gnawing away at our insides. We worry about all sorts of things. We tend to think that our worries are not significant enough or they are too big that God would not be concerned about them or that He could not handle them. God's Word gives us the instructions on how to handle our anxiety and it is through proper prayer. So what do you worry about? What have you done about it?

When things don't go "right" in your life, how do you respond? What relationships in your life have recently changed? How did you react? What other disappointments have you had recently? How have you reacted? Has anyone recently slandered you? How did you react? As we have been studying Philippians 4. The command is for us to "rejoice always" Last week we looked at the things that should be giving us joy, but this week we need to focus on how the believer in Christ can have joy and obey the command. The next verse in vs 5 says "Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;" The word reasonableness has to deal with gentleness or forbearance. How can we be gentle or forbearing when things are not going right? How can we fulfill this command by rejoicing always?

As we have been seeing one of the major themes throughout this book is joy, or rejoicing. I have said that we are to rejoice in spite of our circumstances. We need to find our joy in Christ not in the circumstances. The Christian life is to be one of joy, a joy that transcends the negative things in life. I believe Paul lived this out very well, as his circumstances were bleak. Paul was under house arrest chained to a Roman guard and yet he viewed his circumstances as an opportunity to rejoice. Paul’s mindset on choosing to rejoice even in the midst of his circumstances allowed him to not only be content, but also joyful, even when circumstances were tough. And this is what Scripture calls us to do as well. Choose to rejoice.

One of our missionaries that we support Carlos and Barbara Barahona with Nueva Esperanza (New Hope) gave an update and spoke for us. Carlos and Barbara started the work in Honduras and have been there for 29 years. The ministry seeks to affect permanent change in the spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical lives of poor children living in Honduras. Children are given daily care and attention along with being taught biblical values, personal hygiene, and life skills. If you would like to learn more about their ministry please visit their website. https://hopeinhonduras.org

Paul wrote in Philippians 3:10 "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection..." The word Paul uses for power here is the word "dunamis" We get the word dynamite from this word. Christ's resurrection has great power. Power to do what?

Who are the Elders and what do they do? God's Word gives us important instructions on how a church is to be led and the purpose of having Elders and what those Elders are to be doing. Contrary to popular tradition an Elder is not a decision maker or board member. This message will cover the importance of being Biblical in the way Pleasant Ridge is led and the importance of having Biblically qualified men who serve as Elders.

Are you ready for the return of Christ? He's coming back. Paul stresses to these believers at Philippi the importance of living like a citizen of Heaven, because Jesus is coming back. When Christ returns what will happen? How will we change, what will that look like? What will it look like when Jesus rules on this earth? Are you ready for the return of Christ?

"Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us." Philippians 3:17 How's your christian walk going? After Paul has just told us about the prize that he is pressing on towards which is holiness and to be like Christ, Paul is now stressing the importance to imitate or to follow the example of those who do walk in holiness. Are you walking in holiness? What does a Christians walk look like when they are not walking in holiness? Why is it important to walk in holiness? How can we walk in holiness?

Last week we saw that Paul made mention of a different resurrection for the believers. All the dead in Christ will be resurrected but Paul said he wanted to attain the out-resurrection. As we saw the out resurrection is a further seperation of believers who will be separated to a place of honor and service in the coming kingdom. These are believers who have sown much in the kingdom, they are the ones who have laid up treasures in heaven, they are the ones who stewarded their salvation well and used it to advance the Lord's kingdom. The next set of verses vs 12-16 lays out for us the why and the how of obtaining this out-resurrection. Are we striving and pressing on towards the goal? What is the goal?

Are you ready for resurrection? A couple weeks ago we looked at how the believer in Christ grows and Pauls last statement in vs 11 talks about the future resurrection. Every living human being will face eternity. Those that know Christ that have fallen asleep will be resurrected in Christs likeness. All those who are alive and remain when Christ returns will be changed in a moment in a twinkling of the eye when mortality will put on immortality. Even those who have died without Christ will be resurrected to face eternal Hell fire and the judgement of the Lamb. Pauls statement in vs 11 gives us some details about the future resurrection but what does it look like for the believer and more importantly how can we be prepared for it?

Visiting Missionary Jude Souza

How do we grow in Christ? Paul in his defense of what a true believer is tells us in Philippians 3:10-11. Pauls says "That I may know Him..." To know Christ means to know Him experientially, or to know Him personally or to know Him by personal involvement with. Our growth in Christ is one of the most important experiences that believers should have. What does this growth look like and how does it happen?

The verses that we are going to look at today come right on the heels of this idea of people who were promoting the outward, the flesh, and the religious externals to gain grace with God. What we’re going to see is Paul saying he’s had it all and lost it all so that he could gain Christ. There is a larger picture here at work other than salvation and that is having Christ as our all for everything we need.

Tom Konopinski was our guest speaker for our Missions Moment update

Jesse Maurer our worship pastor is speaking out of I Corinthians 13

Paul begins this new part of the letter with the words "Finally my brothers rejoice in the Lord" and then he spends some time warning them and reminding them to be on the look out for the counterfeits in the church. What do these counterfeits look like? How can we protect ourselves and others from these counterfeits?

As we sum up all of the prophecies concerning the virgin birth, we are faced with a decision of what are we to do with the doctrinal truth of Christ being manifested in the flesh. How does that change us? Paul gives us a interesting topic to discuss in I Timothy 3:16 with the "mystery of godliness" What is this mystery? The mystery is Christ being manifested in the flesh. But what is interesting is that Paul says it's the mystery of godliness. What does that mean?

What do we know about the virgin birth? Did it really happen? How do we know? No doubt a virgin birth is a miracle and unusual. There are over 400 prophecies about Jesus that we find in the Old Testament alone. In fact Jesus Christ, fulfilled numerous predictions that were given of his birth. Micah predicted He would be born in Bethlehem, and He was. Hosea predicted He would be called out of Egypt, and He was. The prophets said He would arise out of Galilee, and He did, out of the little town of Nazareth. The odds of one person fulfilling just eight of the predictions Jesus fulfilled is one in 10 to the 17th power! Truly a miracle! Isaiah the prophet prophesied in Isaiah 7:14 about Immanuel 700 years before Christ would dwell on the earth. The story behind the prophecy is truly amazing and all of it points to Christ who would be sent to be a redeemer for fallen humanity.

Bethlehem was the birth of Jesus Christ. It was also the place where a redeemer would be predicted long before Christ took on flesh and dwelt among us.

Doctrine is very important for the life of the church. The truth is everyone has some form of doctrine that they believe , but the problem is that many of those things don’t line up with the truthfulness of God’s Word. It’s always important to go back to the source and make sure we are getting an accurate view of Who God is and what God says. Scripture teaches us some very important truths about the prophecies of Christ and the message of the Gospel. Jesus’ coming was predicted for thousands of years. The Old Testament contains some 300 specific predictions about the coming Messiah. The very first prophecy about Christ is found in Genesis in the third chapter. In this chapter we have recorded for us the historical fact of the origin of sin, where it came from, how it happened and the result of its effect on this world, but in the midst of this catastrophic event God brings about hope for his creation.