November Cell Groups

It's really hard for me to believe that we are already into November.  This month brings us to Philippians.  If you want to read along with the cell groups, you can download the reading plan here.  Last night at Sanctuary, I conducted an experiment on stage and read out-loud tomorrow's reading.  It took me all of 27 seconds, so please don't buy the excuse from your kids (or from yourself for that matter) that they (or you) don't have time to read this month. 

Reading through Philippians several times over the past month, it was extremely difficult for me to try and break the book down to one, bite-size 20 minute chunk to give to the teens this month.  There are so many verses and passages from Philippians that could easily translate into sermons by themselves.  Looking at the book as a whole though, I think I discovered somewhat of a thesis statement in 1:9-11 where Paul reveals what his prayer is for the Philippians.  He tells them he wants them to abound in love and knowledge so they can determine what God wants from them.  He wants this for them so that they can be perfect for the day of judgment and have productive lives in the meantime. 

He continues on to tell them how they will be able to accomplish this, or rather how God will accomplish it within them.  In Chapter 2 he tells them that they must be like Christ.  As Christians, this should not surprise us that in order to be a disciple of Christ, we should in fact, aim to be like Christ.  I think the problem is that sometimes we get confused about how we are supposed to be like Christ.  Fortunately in Philippians Paul spells it out for us.  He doesn't want us to be like Christ in terms of walking on water, or feeding crowds, or healing the sick.  Which is good, because I have found that I am not very capable of those things.  Instead, he spells out what part of Christ's nature we are supposed to imitate:  "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant." We are to imitate his humility as a servant.  That is something we all can do.  No one needs a master's degree to become a servant.  We not only are to be God's servant, but a servant to everyone else as well.  This is the overarching, counter intuitive message of Philippians.  The more we empty ourselves of power and prestige, the more contentment we will find in Christ.  It is the "secret of being content" that he writes of in 4:12.  The world around us tells us that contentment comes in our circumstances - our power, our prestige, our wealth, our comfort, our relationships.  But the truth is that if our contentment is found in Christ, and not these passing things, then we truly can be content in all situations. 

This month we will be focusing on the role of contentment plays in our walk of discipleship with Christ. 

The first week the questions will center around what we have received from Christ and how we can pass those blessings along to others. 

The second week we examine whether our contentment comes from Christ or from something else. 

There will be no third week because the night before Thanksgiving there will be no cell groups.