In 1976, some 44 years ago, a man, a Christian author by the name of Francis Schaffer, wrote a book that asked the question of believers, "How Should We Then Live?" Now the book, and the question that he asked, arose from his observation and understanding of what was going on in the culture at that time and what he saw was taking place throughout Western civilization. And while many believers were completely oblivious to the pace of change and the pace of decline that was taking course in our society, he saw it coming. He understood that it was just the first of many changes that would come and that there would be even more seismic shifts, if you will, in the future.
A few years ago either 2016, or 2017 Dr. Albert Mohler was writing about Francis Schaffer and he said this "He [Dr. Schaefer] was also asking precisely the right question. How should we then live? That question which troubled Schaffer so much in 1976 troubles all of us now. We're about to find out if Christians in this generation are going to believe and live authentic, biblical Christianity." And Dr. Mohler asked the question, how will we live now?


How Then Should We Live

Why would Francis Schaffer ask that question? Why would Albert Mohler ask that question? And we can go back 2000 years and ask why did the Apostle Paul ask the same question. Here's the reason why. How we live matters. Paul understood this. That's why he instructed the believers in Phillippi to live in a Christ-honoring, gospel-honoring way.
Now let's think this through. What happens when the grace of God brings a person to faith in Christ. What happens when our lives are touched by God's grace? Nothing? A little something? Or does a radical change take place? Well, the Bible would say that when a person comes into saving contact with the grace of God, a radical and dramatic change takes place in that person's life. I mean, let's think about this. Before God's grace intervened in our lives, the Bible describes us as being in a state of spiritual death. But once we come in contact with the saving grace of God, we pass from death unto life. In fact, Jesus calls it "abundant life" (John 10:10 ). Before God's grace intervened in our lives, we were slaves to sin. We were slaves to our bodily passions. We were slaves to the desires of our flesh. We were slaves to our emotions. Before God's grace intervened in our lives, we lived in fear of death. We had absolutely no hope for the future. Before God's grace in our lives, nothing about us was acceptable to a holy, righteous God. But when the Holy Spirit drew us to Christ and granted us the twin gifts of repentance towards God and faith in Christ, everything about us changed. The Bible says that we became new creations. The Bible says "the old has passed away and the new has come" (2 Cor 5:17 ).
So I ask you, does your life reflect this kind of radical change? Not that you are perfect, but fundamentally, are you different from the person that you were before you came to Christ? Your affections should be different. Your attitudes should be different. Your action should be different. your desires, your purpose in life, all those things should be different. And if they're not different, please do the wise thing and ask yourself, "Am I truly in Christ? Have I truly been converted? Has there been an inward change or am I just conforming to some external standard? Am I living up to my own standard of righteousness?"


So I ask you, does your life reflect this kind of radical change?

Paul, here in the text, draws on two images that the people of Philippi would have been very, very familiar with. One is the image of being a citizen, which we'll look at this week. And the other image is that of being part of the Roman military. And we'll examine that next week.
So the first image that Paul draws on is their citizenship. Remember that Philippi was a colony of Rome. It was some 800 miles or so from Rome but they were very loyal to Rome. Now, Rome, different from our country, the United States, in that, just because you were born in Rome or in a colony of Rome, that did not mean that you are automatically a citizen of Rome. Here in the United States. If a person is born on United States soil, they are automatically a citizen of the United States. But that wasn't the case in Rome. Say, "well, how did you become a citizen of Rome?" Well, you could purchase it, or it could be conferred upon you, you could be granted citizenship. You remember Paul with his dealings with the Philippian jailer told the Philippian jailer that he was indeed a Roman citizen and Philippian jailer said "well, I am too but it cost me a great deal of money in order to become a citizen."
So, to be a Roman citizen, was a great source of pride for those who were indeed, Romans. Roman citizenship was coveted as a prize. To be a citizen of Rome meant that you had rights and privileges as well as responsibilities, that those who weren't citizens of Rome didn't have. And a citizen of Rome was to live in a manner that was worthy of the name of being a Roman. Roman citizens were to recognize that to obey the laws of Rome, they were to be loyal to Rome, they were to, yes pay their taxes to Rome.
So Paul draws on their understanding of what it means to be a citizen of Rome to teach the believers of Philippi to teach the church of Philippi that although they may have been citizens of Rome, not all of them probably were, but for those who were and the others would have been familiar with the concept, they were also citizens of heaven. They were first and foremost citizens of heaven, and therefore, their lifestyle should be a reflection of their true citizenship. In fact, later in the letter in chapter 3, verse 20, Paul reminds them "but our citizenship is in heaven."
And by the way, this is just an aside. As you focus on becoming the best citizen of heaven that you can be, you will automatically become a better citizen of the country where you hold your citizenship. Okay? That's Paul's whole point. I'll say this dozen of times. Paul's whole point is: focus on the fact that you are first and foremost citizens of heaven and you are citizens of Rome, a distant second, okay?


We are citizens of heaven!

So since we are citizens of heaven, and that means that our lifestyle should be governed by and should conform to the mandate of God's kingdom. Now, I realize that when you hear a statement like that, it's very possible that you immediately begin to think negatively. You think, "Oh, well, here goes another sermon about 'gotta do this. You got to do that. Don't do this. Don't do that.'" That's not what Paul's driving at here at all. The reality is, and I'm afraid we don't focus on nearly enough as believers, there are so many positives and privileges of being a Christian, or being a citizen of heaven, that it seems like we rarely ever focus on. Perhaps even more rarely are they ever preached upon. But let's not miss that. Since our citizenship is in heaven, what Paul is saying is, that must be you're, not just your primary focus in life, your only focus in life.
Let me show you where I get this. Look at verse 1, "only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I may hear of you that you're standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel." The first thing that Paul says is: 'Whether I'm there or not, you need to live the right way.' It's a real sign of spiritual immaturity if you can only act right when the preachers around. Right? So Paul says 'whether I'm there or not if I get released from prison, I'm coming back to you if I don't, if I'm executed in prison, obviously I won't be coming back. but whether I'm there or not, this is the way you must live.' Okay? So when Paul says only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, He is calling us to make a  concerted effort, to focus on our citizenship which is in heaven. Not our earthly citizenship, but our heavenly citizenship.
Now, one important phrase is "manner of life." It translates a Greek word that has to do with being a good citizen. So Paul uses a bit of wordplay here. 'He says even though you live in Philippi, even though you are a citizen of Philippi, even though you may take great pride in being a citizen of Philippi never forget that you are first and foremost, also a citizen of heaven and therefore, you should be a good citizen of heaven,' if I could say it that way. You should pay attention to your responsibilities because you're a citizen of heaven, but you should also pay attention to your privileges because you are a citizen of heaven.
So let's think this through. The Church of Philippi, as we've seen earlier, was under a great deal of pressure, they were being persecuted for their faith in Christ. Now, what happens in our lives, in our hearts and our minds, when we have some kind of external trouble? Isn't that where we always focus our time and attention on? That's where our thoughts always go to? We're always focused on the problem. The tyranny of the moment takes over, the tyranny of the urgent. Somebody says something to us and that's all we can think about. Somebody does something to us and that's all we can think about.


Don't give others emotional power over you!

I told Ben here a few weeks ago, I have come to the point in my life where I do not grant anybody emotional power over me. I will not do it. You are not going to control the way that I think, the way that I act, the way that I live. Try as you might, it ain't happening. You're wasting your time. And I would encourage you to do the same. Do not give people emotional power over you. Why would you want to do that? The only person that I'm going to give emotional power over me is the Lord Jesus Christ through the person of the Holy Spirit. Other than that, I'm not going to do it. But so many Christians, what do they do? They just can't get o