Philippians pt 3 - SUBVERSIVE, SELFLESS AND UPSIDE DOWN; WHY WE LIKE OUR IDEA OF FOLLOWING JESUS BUT STRUGGLE WHEN THE TRUTH OF WHAT IT MEANS SETS IN.

Scripture References: Phil 1:27-2:11

How to stay the course when becoming like Jesus is way harder than you thought.

1. The gospel should change how you view resistance; stand firm. Salvation starts as a beautiful invitation to sanctification before it becomes subversive to the whole of our personhood. God forms you differently than you would form yourself. God uses what we would avoid or skip to produce what we could never have built or dreamed, almost always at the cost of self. Sometimes the thing you want God to get you out of is the very thing He's using to get Christ into you deeper. The way of Jesus is downward mobility in a world obsessed with upward mobility… we go low, to climb high.
2. The gospel should change how you view and interact with people; stand together. We clothe ourselves with selflessness, humility, and a commitment to unity, and that's what preserves my faith's fragility on its journey to maturity. Maturity is measured by how little life has to revolve around you. Knowing more about Jesus isn't the goal; becoming more like Jesus is… maturity in God is almost always measured in my humility, selflessness, and unity to the gospel and kingdom that weeds out the pride of self-centered and self-preserving salvation.
3. The gospel should change your view of greatness in life and the world; stoop low... because the faster you can get upside down, the quicker you can find the right side up. As time goes on we tend to fight God at every turn in the journey of faith because we like to profess faith but don't really love the process of what that faith actually does to our souls. If greatness is only about me, and doesn't have a "we," it's going to feel empty. Does the shape of your life look anything like the shape of His? Does it leave an impact on others as He did?