Valley Church Clinton
A Life Worthy | February 7th, 2026

      • Philippians 1:27CSB

      • Philippians 1:28-30CSB

  • Blank Song Slide
  • How He Loves
  • Blank Song Slide
  • Holy Holy Holy (Nicaea)
  • Sisyphus is a name you probably have never heard, it’s a name that I haven’t heard of until this week.
    And this Sisyphus guy, he comes from Greek mythology, he was a king known for trickery, especially toward the gods.
    His most famous trick was cheating death twice by revealing secrets that the gods had, and this trickery engaged the gods, so much so that they sent Sisyphus to the underworld immediately for eternity.
    And this is likely where your knowledge of the story of Sisyphus picks up, because this once king is fabled to have been punished by rolling a massive boulder up a mountain, only to sit at the top and watch it roll all the way back down.
    And this type of work has been known as a Sisyphean Task. A task that takes all your effort. Tedious. Pointless. Fruitless.
    Only to complete the task and watch it all fall apart.
    Rolling a big rock up a hill and watching it roll back down is a Sisyphean Task.
    Telling my son to clean his room, Sisyphean task, because at the end of the day, everything seems to roll back out of his closet onto the floor.
    My wife Emily is really into crocheting, and occasionally she’ll miscount the stitches and loops, only to unroll the entire sweater and start over.
    If you’ve ever worked for a middle manager who thinks he or she is the CEO of the universe, you know what a Sisyphean task is.
    Moms out there who try to maintain a clean house, I know at the end of the day it seems pointless because it seems like all day, dishes, laundry, putting away toys, only to have a full sink, laundry basket, and floor at the end of the day.
    And this is something I think we all feel at times in our lives. We wake up for our day full, we look at the mundane tasks ahead of us. We do our best to complete them, whether they feel productive or not.
    Only to go to bed that night and do it again the next day, as if we’re the star of groundhog day. As if our lives have hit the reset button, the sun rises and shines on our boulder that we must pick back up and take the first step up the mountain.
    As if all the work we’ve done is for nothing.
    And if we’re not careful, our work could be for nothing. We can twiddle our thumbs, we can burn daylight, we can spin our wheels, throw our money into the sea - we can sit back and watch our entire life fly by.
    Or. Or we could live our lives worthy.
    What if I told you we could all live like Jesus, we could live our lives in a manner that God expects and wants, even in mundanity.
    Do you know the definition of that word? Here it is,
    Mundanity…the fact of being very ordinary and therefore not interesting.
    What if I told you that you can live a life pleasing to God in that that.
    Because the fact of the matter is the vast majority of people in this room and in the world, they don’t have a life of supreme interest. I’m not walking onto the Levi’s Stadium in California to play in the Superbowl.
    I’m not an amazing singer and performer, I don’t have the intelligence to send rocket ships to space.
    I’m a normal human, no name, no face, just doing my best, and not to thwart your greatness out there, but you are too.
    Because this is the mantle we take up as Christians. Not basking in glory, but picking up our crosses.
    And this is what Paul is saying in Philippians, that we normal people, the church, we must take our lives and simply live them worthy of the gospel, take a look at Philippians 1:27:
    Philippians 1:27 CSB
    27 Just one thing: As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel,
    Okay, stop right there. Paul is making an identity claim.

    As Citizens of Heaven

    Paul starts this whole section by declaring the recipients identity. Who they belonged to.
    And remember, citizenship was so incredibly important in this day. It’s just as important today, but here as natural born U.S. citizens, we never have to think about it.
    Our rights are our rights, unalienable, fundamental, inherent to every person. We take them for granted.
    But in the Roman Empire, the vast area controlled by Rome, citizenship was exceedingly rare. The Roman Empire contained somewhere between 55 and 70 million people.
    And can you guess what percentage were citizens of Rome?
    In Italy, where the capital Rome as and is, 4-7%. Outside of there, where Paul travelled, it was more like 1-3%.
    1-3% of people were protected and backed by the Roman government.
    Rights included getting legally married. Legally owning property. The right to a fair trial instead of being beaten or executed based on the emotions of the guards.
    This right to a fair trial is, in fact, what got travelling Paul to Rome. He appealed to Caesar. I would say he flashed his get out of jail free card, but that didn’t work.
    Paul flashed his citizenship token and it meant something. Paul was given rights. Suddenly, Paul had the right to fair trials and to be treated like a human.
    Citizenship showed your status. Who was backing you. People yearned for it, slaves imagined what it must have been like to have rights, even the most basic human rights.
    But notice here. Notice how Paul launches this exposition. As citizens of heaven.
    He could’ve started much differently.
    As citizens of Philippi. As citizens of Rome, for those who are. As inhabitants of this city. Of this power, as slaves, as masters, as property owners, as business owners.
    But no. Paul makes the appeal that levels all people, all professors of Christ.
    As citizens of heaven. He makes a similar appeal in Ephesians:
    Ephesians 2:19 CSB
    19 So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household,
    No longer foreigners and strangers. But. Citizens.
    This is a right now statement too. It’s right now, it’s not a future proposition: “as soon-to-be citizens of heaven.”
    No!
    Right now, addressing these citizens of heaven.
    As citizens of heaven, we are to (read 27 again)
    As citizens of heaven, we are to stand firm in the gospel. Why?

    To Stand Firm

    The purpose of living a life worthy of the gospel is so that Paul can hear that these Philippians church goers are standing firm.
    And he makes it clear, this is regardless of whether Paul actually makes it back to see his friends, or if he’s absent completley, which let’s be honest, means he’s dead.
    But either way, Paul wants their lives to be standing firm on the gospel, not to please him, or to be in response to pleasing Paul, but because of their status in the Kingdom of God as citizens.
    I’m sure this is something you’ve experienced, I know I have, doing something because someone is watching or will check up.
    This happens especially in my life when my wife Emily leaves the house for some reason, whether it’s to get away or to do some task, leaving me at home with the kids.
    And believe me, there’s nothing I would rather do than pop some pizza rolls in the air fryer, put on YouTube for the kids, and play Fallout 4 on my computer (that’s a video game), leave a sink full of dishes, shirk off bedtime routines.
    But, being the amazing husband I am, elite really, I’m a little scared of her reaction if she walked in to that chaos. Right?
    So, I do my best to clean up the pizza roll mess, and create a welcoming environment that is at least as close to normal as possible.
    This is kind of what Paul is trying to avoid. He’s appealing to a higher power, much like his own appeal to citizenship and Caesar, he’s trying to tell the Philippians that he may not return.
    This may be the end for Paul, and they won’t have anyone to keep that watchful eye, to check up on them.
    Their citizenship in heaven os their own, and they need to live their lives worthy of the gospel that they own.
    That they’ve claimed.
    He’s almost pushing his little fledglings out of the nest.
    Their live is their own.
    And he wants them to stand firm. This would be a win for Paul, because as an overseer, he wants nothing more than to hear his best friends and supporters have stood firm in the gospel.
    Not fading away, but fanning the flame for Christ.
    And here’s the thing about standing firm. I think what Paul is referring to here is not the high times, or the exciting times, stand firm when someone comes knocking down your door.
    Maybe there’s an element of this, but the reference seems to be in everyday, ordinary life.
    Standing firm comes from daily decisions, small decisions, that lead to a lifetime of discipline. Commitment.
    Paul writes about kind of the opposite thought in Ephesians:
    Ephesians 4:14 CSB
    14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.
    This is the opposite of standing firm. Like little kids, who don’t know much, who are easily tricked, easily overpowered.
    I don’t know if you’ve ever taken a kids to the beach. It’s not really a vacation, honestly, but if you’ve ever seen a child try to stand up for the first time in the waves, they immediately get in over their heads, fall in the sand, and start crying.
    That’s what Paul is saying here, mature Christians aren’t like that.
    Rather, they stand firm. In the gospel.
    This means we have to grow up. We can’t be kids forever.
    But that means time. And natural maturation. A lifetime of decisions and choices. Mistakes and wins.
    It’s hard. Although a big moment in our life can certainly change our outlook and direction, it rarely influences our character and growth.
    Because that comes from thousands of decisions that make us into who we are.
    John Mark Comer has a great line in his book “Live No Lies”, he writes:
    “We make our decisions, and then our decisions make us” -John Mark Comer, Live No Lies
    The reality is that our character is built through thousands of tiny, seemingly insignificant decisions.
    But at the end our life, they’ll add up. Every decision to listen to the Spirit of God will make you more into the image of God.
    And yes, this is going to look so flipping boring. It looks like being kind to someone at the grocery store who cuts you off.
    If means being generous when someone is in need. It means showing your child grace when they’ve screwed up 1000 times that day. It looks like forgiving someone when they wrong you.
    It means silently picking up after someone. Doing something good and telling not a soul. Not hurrying through the day and reading your kid that tractor book for the thousandth time, truly listening to someone instead of mentally moving onto your next task.
    These are seemingly insignificant moments that are transforming your soul into the image of God. Slow down and live in them.
    This is what Paul is wanting for the Philippians.
    And they do this how? Here’s what it says:
    In one Spirit, in one accord, contenting together.
    It means unity. Truly locking arms and being in the same spirit.
    One accord, a shared purpose. A common mission.
    Contending together. Do you know what that word means? I didn’t until I looked it up.
    It means to struggle along with, to fight side by side.
    This means trusting your brother and sister in Christ literally with your life. Imagine if the Roman army, or our army, imagine if they were constantly second guessing each other.
    Second guessing their missions, going on different missions, not being connected at all. It wouldn’t work.
    And neither does disunity int he church. This doesn’t mean we can’t disagree, actually if we all agree all the time, that points to cultish behavior.
    But when we have different missions, when we stop fighting alongside one another, we’ve lost the battle. We are no longer standing firm.
    And together, standing firm in unity, look at what Paul writes next, verse 28
    Philippians 1:28 CSB
    28 not being frightened in any way by your opponents. This is a sign of destruction for them, but of your salvation—and this is from God.
    We’re not frightened. This Greek word behind our English, ptryo is the root, it actually originates from scared horses. From startles horses.
    And what are horses startled by? I had a horse when I was in middle school, her name was Goldie, and she was the worst.
    Scared of everything. Wind, other horses, and when I was riding her bareback, she got started by a car and send me to the moon and I had a purple bruise on my entire leg for months. Never got back to a horse after that I don’t think.
    But frightened horses, they get dangerous.
    And it’s the same with us. Frighten a human, back us in a corner, and we can see our animalistic side come out quick.
    Our opponents try to frighten us, but since we are citizens of heaven, since we are living our lives worthy of the gospel, since we are standing firm, arm in arm in unity, we aren’t startles like horses.
    No, we’re cool as a cucumber.
    Then Paul writes something weird. That took me a long time to understand, if I even got there.
    But I think it brings us to the head of Pauls writing here, in these short verses.
    It’s the notion and connection of:

    Belief and Suffering

    Listen to this:
    Philippians 1:28 CSB
    28 not being frightened in any way by your opponents. This is a sign of destruction for them, but of your salvation—and this is from God.
    So many questions. What’s this? What is a sign of destruction? What is our salvation? Is destruction of God? Is salvation?
    Even though this is a strange phraseology, I think we can make sense of it by reading verse 29:
    Philippians 1:29 CSB
    29 For it has been granted to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,
    Paul here isn’t saying our opponents will go away. Or that we will be able to stand against them and effectively shirk all their arguments.
    What he’s saying here that there’s a sign that is simultaneously a sign of destruction for our opponents, and of our salvation.
    And this sign, it happens at the same time and place, but is percieved much differently on each side of the coin.
    See, to our opponents, this sign is success. It means they’re winning, the persecution is winning, their antics and tactics to thwart the kingdom of God, they’re working.
    But to the believer, to the follower of Christ, the sign is salvation. Rescue, eternal assurance.
    Have you figured out the sign yet?
    It’s suffering.
    Our opponents, that seemingly want to frighten us, they see our suffering, but are extremely short sighted.
    They see suffering and consider it victory. As if our God has abandoned us, he’s too weak to reach us, finally they’ve proven that this little human isn’t worthy of God to rescue them from suffering.
    But flip the perspective.
    Because we, as followers of Christ, we see suffering differently. Not as the end game, but as a sign that we’re preaching the true gospel.
    Because Satan doesn’t really have to worry about the lukewarm Christians, they’re doing enough on their own to diminish Jesus, rather, Satan attacks the true followers.
    This whole passage, it reminds me so much of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Do you remember this scene?
    Aslan, the lion, the supposed savior of Narnia, he willingly gives himself up to the Witch. And in a terrifying scene of evil monsters and beings, they chain Aslan on a stone slab and they slaughter him.
    And for a movement, the entire evil realm rejoices. They party.
    And of course, this is an allusion to Jesus, because for 3 days, Satan thought he won.
    No human had ever come back from the dead. The entire cast of hell, they we’re partying.
    1 Corinthians 2:8 CSB
    8 None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
    What they saw as Christ’s death and loss, God saw as victory. The same event meant two different things to two different groups of beings.
    Belief and suffering are intertwined, friends.
    Philippians 1:29 CSB
    29 For it has been granted to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,
    It has been granted. Not only to believe, but to suffer.
    Belief is gift from Jesus, but you what else is? Suffering.
    Suffering is a gift.
    This pastFriday, Dillon and AJ were kind enough to let this old guy join the youth group to Winter Jam 2026 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, home of the Yessers, the Pacers, and they expected 10k-15k people to attend this event,
    And let me tell you, it was packed. Sometimes it’s real easy to feel alone in your Christian walk, right? You ever feel that?
    But coming into a packed stadium where the vast majority of people have come to worship God, that’s humbling. God is clearly and visibly moving in our youth, it was so exciting to be there.
    To sing Our God is Greater with 15 thousand other people, to sing how He’s a Good Good Father shoulder to shoulder. It got me hyped.
    But we have to be honest about what this is. Because this kind of thing, I don’t think, is revival.
    Now, please don’t mis understand me, I think Winter Jam is wonderful and amazing, and I’m going to continue going every year, but at it’s very best, it’s the product of revival, or maybe if we’re honest, the end of revival.
    Satan can pretty easily transform the hearts of this crowd and these performers to be self-inflated, idolized versions of themselves.
    Because Winter Jam is pretty easy. In a room with like-minded people worshipping. Lovely, but if we’re praying for true revival, what it looks like it this:
    On February 5, 1597, 26 Christians we’re captured in Kyoto, Japan ears and noses cut off, marched over 600 miles to Nagasaki, bound to crosses in the ocean, and left to die either by the rising tide filled their lungs with water, lungs collapsed from exhaustion, or spears thrust into their sides.
    And do you know what their last words were? Deus-Sama. Translation - Lord God. And if you know anything about Japanese, you know that sama is a highly honorable title, used in the proper and distinguished fashion.
    The 26 martyrs weren’t just referring a god, they were appealing to the Lord God Most High in their dying breaths.
    Live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ.
    I know revival can look like Winter Jam this year, but it sure doesn’t start there.
    It starts here. It starts when people choose the narrow path, when we start picking up our crosses and following Jesus to Calvary.
    Because when the tide rose and killed these saints, their persecutors thought they won.
    This is a sign of destruction for them, but of your salvation…
    Suffering is a gift from God. I know it doesn’t feel like it. I know it’s a lot easier to throw in the towel. And that’s just what Satan wants.
    But the reality is that we should be honored to suffer on Christ’s behalf. To suffer in the name of Jesus Christ.
    Philippians 3:10 CSB
    10 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,
    Belief and suffering are inherently connected, inseparable.
    When you truly sign up to be a follower of Christ, you don’t choose the easy way. But the good news is we aren’t alone.
    So, I think there are three really concrete things we can do as followers of Christ to live our lives worthy, and the first is:

    Stop Living Alone

    And no, if you live by yourself, I don’t mean get a roommate.
    I mean start living in community, because isolation kills friendship and connection.
    Remember, we are to stand firm not alone in our own accord, but with one another. Fighting aloneside one another in unity.
    Standing firm holding each other up.
    1 Peter 5:9 CSB
    9 Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.
    Listen, you aren’t the first person to go though what you’re going through.
    I know it’s hard, believe me, if you put my life on a slider, I would be all the way private, not public.
    As Ron Swanson said in one of my favorite shows Parks and Rec,
    “I once worked with a guy for three years and never learned his name. Best friend I ever had. We still never talk sometimes."
    Go out on a limb, be vulnerable, and talk to someone. Please. There have ben way too many people that haven’t, that have suffered alone, please don’t go down that dark road.
    Second is this:

    Practice

    We need to revive the spiritual disciplines in the church. Spiritual formation is what drives disciples to maturity, and it’s more than reading the Bible and praying.
    It’s more than a checklist of things to do to get “closer” to God, because I believe that is a fools errand.
    We must live our lives with the desire to be formed into the image of God. Again, it’s little disciples, practices, and decisions that we make in our everyday lives.
    It’s the micro decisions that lead to the macro person.
    In order to know what Christ wants, we have to live like him. To share our minds with Him. To get to a point where we don’t have to actively think “what would Jesus do”, we just do it.
    And that takes practice.
    John Orberg had a great quote on this:
    “The disciplines are a means to an end, and the end is life.” -John Ortberg
    We have to practice loving God and loving others. If you want to grow, come talk to us, we can point you to tried and true spiritual disciplines that can help you on your journey,
    Third is:

    Make the Ordinary Sacred

    Not gonna lie, I stole this directly from Tyler Staton, but it’s such a great phrase.
    Make your everyday, boring, mundane life sacred. Make every little task, every second of work, make it holy.
    Invite God into it. Pray throughout.
    Brother Lawrence, the author of The Practice of the Presence of God, he was a French Catholic Monk who’s job at the monastery was a kitchen worker and sandal repairer, he writes this in the late 1600’s:
    “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.” - Brother Lawrence
    Let God be part of your everyday. Because that’s what he wants.
    Transformation comes from this. Daily reps of obedience.
    Friends, let’s live our lives worthy of the gospel. As citizens of heaven, standing firm, together, with the gifts of belief and suffering.
    We’re going to transition to a time of communion now.
    And communion is the remembrance of Jesus’s suffering. His body broken and blood shed.
    We’re going to play some music, and when you’re ready, come up, grab a piece of bread and a cup of juice.
    We have a kind of altar up here if you would like to come up and kneel.
    Take this time to really reflect. Are you living your life worthy? I’ll give everyone some time.
    As you feel led, come up and grab the elements, and when everyone is back in their seats, I’ll back up and we can take the elements together as a church.
    Mark 14:22–26 CSB
    22 As they were eating, he took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.” 23 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly I tell you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” 26 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

      • Philippians 1:27CSB

      • Ephesians 2:19CSB

      • Ephesians 4:14CSB

      • Philippians 1:28CSB

      • Philippians 1:28CSB

      • Philippians 1:29CSB

      • 1 Corinthians 2:8CSB

      • Philippians 1:29CSB

      • Philippians 3:10CSB

      • 1 Peter 5:9CSB

  • Blank Song Slide
  • Doxology (Old 100th)
  • Blank Song Slide
  • Exalted Over All
  • Blank Song Slide
  • Worthy Of It All
Valley Church Clinton
2 members