Philippians - The New sermon Series at Mars Hill

This week sees the beginning of a new sermon series by Pastor Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church Seattle, going through the Book of Philippians.

[You can watch a trailer for this series here]

In his introduction on the voxpop network Driscoll writes;
"Jesus was a rebel, outlaw, renegade, and hardcore, sanctified troublemaker. He never sinned, but He lived His life by a set of rules that His culture did not approve of, especially the stuffed-shirt religious types. Examples include healing on the Sabbath, throwing over tables in the temple, eating with godless sinners, and not washing His hands before eating. Clearly, Jesus was no coward who conformed to social pressure.

Jesus was ultimately murdered in an attempt to stop Him from literally turning the world upside down, which was as effective as blowing on the head of a dandelion to exterminate it. Nonetheless, Jesus endured the cross, as Hebrews 12:2 says, “for the joy that was set before him” and never lost His joy even in the midst of betrayal, poverty, injustice, loneliness, pain, suffering, slander, and even death. Jesus was single-minded in His mission to pursue God’s glory in heaven and our salvation on earth. Jesus lived without those things that we would typically associate with joy, such as health, wealth, sex, and comfort, yet He is the freest and happiest person who has ever lived. Jesus is the most joyful person who has ever lived because He was the most obedient, God-glorifying, humble, sacrificial person who has ever lived. Paradoxically, He had joy despite being a “man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3).

Following his conversion, Paul patterned his life after Jesus and also lived as a rebel, outlaw, renegade, and hardcore, sanctified troublemaker. He too was single, broke, often homeless, and so hated that he got run out of more than a few towns after taking a good beating. Paul writes Philippians while he is sitting on the floor of a filthy Roman jail (Philippians 1:13–17)—a brutal place and nothing like the Paris Hilton Camp Cupcake Clubhouses that we see today. Alone in his jail cell, flat broke, tired, hungry, sick, abandoned, and facing the prospect of a brutal death, Paul sat down to write a letter to his friends in Philippi, who enjoyed one of the few churches written to in the New Testament that did not sound like it had been taken over by drunk carnival workers. " [READ MORE]

I honestly cannot wait to listen this series, and as with 'vintage Jesus', 'Nehemiah' and 'Ruth' i'll be checking the website to see if the audio is available, every few seconds on Monday and Tuesday like an addict searching for a fix.

But I pray that as I listen this series that Christ will continue to correct, teach rebuke and change me so that I can become a clearer image of Him who died for us!

More details can be found here