St Petersburg Presbyterian Church

We live in an anxious age in which...

The Big Idea: Because God is on the throne, His people can have hope in His plan of redemption for the world.

We see that Philippians 2:12-18 is connected to the previous verses because of the important word “therefore” Paul uses to begin our text this morning. Paul shows us that in light of the glories that we heard of Christ in verses 5-11, we must seek to live under this Christ’s reign. In order to do that, we live for holiness, live with his people, and live for the mission.

Many models are set before us to emulate in this world—often models of strength, power, and victory. In our text this morning, Paul sets forth the model of Christ who, though being in the very form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but rather stooped, served, and saved, all for the sake of others.

Our scripture this morning opens our eyes to the reality that there are opponents to the Christian life. It calls us to stand firm together against these enemies and identifies them as internal enemies, external enemies, and false enemies.

When hard times arise in life, we can often feel lost and wonder how to proceed. Our text speaks to such a situation. Whereas in the previous portion of scripture we saw that we have joy in Christ, our text this morning shows us that we have direction in Christ as well. No matter where we are in life, we see that we must make Christ known, honor Christ, and serve Christ.

We must fight for true spiritual comfort which comes from God, through Christ, and is for others.

Joy can seem an elusive thing in this fallen world. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he mentions joy more than any other of his letters. This is all the more interesting when we consider that he wrote it from prison. From the very beginning of Paul’s letter to the Philippians we see that Christ provides a joy that transcends all of our circumstances in this fallen world.

Psalm 139 is king David’s personal prayer and song of praise to God who knows all things, and therefore knows us better than we know ourselves. It is our greatest joy and comfort to know and be known by God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Psalm 110 is the most-quoted Old Testament Scripture in the New Testament, as it powerfully points to the person and work of God’s coming Messiah. As Christians, we can read it and take hope in this distressing world because it shows us the Messiah who reigns over his people, ministers to his people, and wins on behalf of his people.

The Psalms are like a spiritual medicine cabinet filled with prescriptions for our every need. There is help and hope for when you feel as if God is far away and your longings for Him are cold and weak, or when you feel like His forgiveness is out of reach. The soul-healing prescription contained in Psalm 103 is Worship! This is a call to worship God with all that we are and have because of who He...

Because God is our mighty fortress, we have his protection surrounding us, his presence with us, and his power working for us to the end that we can know a peace and security beyond our comprehension in a world where there is none.

Psalm 40 meets us in our sufferings and gives us words with which to cry out to God. David shows us that since God is mindful of us in our sufferings, we can remain confident in him even amid our difficulties. We can do so with perspective, memory, and resolve.

A mere six verses, and yet Psalm 23 is one of the most well-known and beloved pieces of poetry in the whole world. It is easy to see why upon reading it. The psalm gives us a wonderful picture of God as our faithful shepherd, and calls us to place our hope in Him. As the psalm shows, we can do so because the Lord sustains us, protects us, and provides for us.

When we are anxious and fearful because of our sinful failures, we need to rehearse what we know to be true about God for us in Jesus as a balm for our soul.

Psalm 2 teaches us that God’s judgment falls on those who rebel against him, but his blessing rests on all who turn from their rebellion and take refuge in his Son, whom he has anointed as King.

There is in every human heart a longing for deep and lasting happiness which transcends our circumstances. This longing is the soul’s quest for God, who made us to find our happiness in him. Psalm 1, which is the entryway into the whole Psalter, gives us God’s roadmap for true happiness and warns us of pursuing the alternative.

Paul closes his letter to the Galatians with one last battle cry for the gospel. In doing so, he calls for Christians to hold fast to the gospel by rejecting enemies of the cross, embracing the heart of the cross, and living in light of the cross.

Our text continues Paul’s exhortation to keep in step with the Spirit. In our text he provides instructions for living together as a community united by the Holy Spirit and, in doing so, warns against the ways that even those who seek to follow the Spirit can be deceived.

When Jesus Christ ascended to the Father’s right hand in heaven, he set in motion a number of things which are essential to God’s overall plan of redemption, and therefore, necessary for us to understand, believe, live by, and rejoice in.

This passage describes the “normal” Christian life. It is a life that is shaped, guided, and empowered by God, the Holy Spirit. Paul describes here that internal battle every believer experiences between the desires of the flesh and desires of the Spirit. He reminds us that every Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and therefore, has access to the infinite resources of God’s power to overcom...

Jesus Christ has liberated us from the bondage of sin and death to live in the freedom of a relationship with God. This freedom is to be embraced, guarded, and exercised through the faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Since the grace of God is totally free, we must not think there’s anything we can add to it to gain God’s favor. To realize this, we must recognize our only two options before God, reject slavery, and then embrace freedom.

In our text, Paul pleads with the Galatians to return to the gospel. In doing so, he warns them that they have returned to slavery and have fallen for the deceit of the false teachers. Paul urges them instead to live in light of the gospel.

In our passage, Paul is impressing upon the Galatians and, therefore, upon us, the wonders of what God has done to make us right with himself. We have not only been declared righteous in God’s sight through faith in Jesus (justification), but we have been brought into God own family as his dearly loved sons (adoption)! Because of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, and our union with him throug...