2010 Mar 7 - Philippians 4 & Intro to Sermon on the Mount

March 7
Philippians 4
Intro to Sermon on the Mount

Philippians wrap-up
We'd already discussed many points found in chapter 4. Still, we found new topics and went back to a couple others.

Book of life
Paul, Jesus, and John all mentioned that there are names written in heaven. In Revelation, two books are mentioned: One records all our deeds, and will apparently be made public eventually. The other is the book of life, and that is the one that determines our destiny. This brings us right back to the idea that the new life is a gift, not something we earn by being good.

Peace of God or God of peace
Paul promises his readers (and us) that God's peace will guard us as we depend on God. But later in the passage, he tells us that God Himself will be with us. This reminded some of us that God promises us a relationship. He's more interested in being with us than giving us good things. We need to remember to look beyond the gifts to the Giver Himself.

What you've seen in me, put into practice
We were reminded that there are people in our lives who make us stand a little taller. These people inspire us to be better than we might otherwise be. It is good to have people like that who are examples to us. We need to think about their lives, but we also need to live our own lives imitating them properly.

God will meet all your needs
Is it right to expect rewards for doing right? Jesus told about servants who get no special reward for doing what's expected of them. And yet throughout the Bible we get lavish promises of rewards for following God's way.

But if God isn't providing, does that mean that we don't need what we are hoping for? In many cases, that's certainly true. However, Jesus said that some things, both good and bad, happen to everyone. We do need to learn to be content in every situation. But we also need to know that we live in a fallen world, and even Christians die. God's perspective is bigger than just our own needs. And Paul certainly expected his share of suffering in this world.

Sermon on the Mount
Three chapters in Matthew (5-7) contain the Sermon on the Mount. This message from Jesus outlines the life of a Christ-follower. David is looking forward to our discussions during the coming weeks.

We do need to keep in mind, from our Philippians discussions, that God understands that none of us is following perfectly. But God does expect us to draw closer and closer to Him during our lives, and the Sermon on the Mount has some pretty great ideas on what that closer-and-closer life will look like.

David encouraged us to read all of Matthew's gospel this week. He suggested we each find someone to discuss it with as well. (If you don't blog here, you can join our Facebook discussion.)

He left us with three questions, posted on the class website.