Where Does Your Allegience Lie?

Christopher Henderson

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Phillipians 3

This sermon is coming with a disclaimer, this sermon is going to be addressing and issue that has plagued the American Church for quite sometime. This sermon is also built more topical then expository in the sense of we are going to be looking a few different scripture rather then one main one. leading up to the writing of this sermon I was preparing the worship set and working with Pat on the 4th of July services here at the Church. We were asked if we could ensure that it was Patriotic, nothing wrong with that right? Yet, when I was speaking with Pat he stated something that stuck with me, he said you know I am patriotic, I love my country, I fly the flag, I love the flag, I am proud to be able to call this Country my home. But I find it hard to do a service like this, I can’t quite point to it all, but Church should be about Christ and pointing to Christ not about America, not about us, about God. I agree with Pat wholeheartedly on this, and after that conversation I kept struggling internally as I planning that 4th of July service. Internally, I am very proud to be able to live in a country in which I get to enjoy the freedoms that I get to enjoy, I appreciate, remember, and pay honor to those who have laid down their lives in service to our country and the defense thereof, I honor those who have served and are continuing to serve as I too have had the unique privilige and honor of wearing the uniform of the United States Army for over 7 years, however, I also wonder if we here in America and in particular within Evangelical circles have traded what is sacred for something other then? I wonder if we have cheapened what it truly means to be a Christian and traded one citizenship for another....

Within the last couple of months I have been greived by some of the things that I have seen being posted and reposted all over social media from Pastors and Church leaders, in fact I would contend that the issue here in America within our society does not rest on those outside of the Church but rather those within the Church walls. Recently, I saw a sermon circulating over facebook, twitter, youtube, TikTok and so on and so forth from a Pastor who has gained a lot of followers over the last couple of years. In it, he berated democrats and made the statement that all democrats must go to hell and for better lack of words are not welcome in the Church. After this went viral there was another clip of the same Pastor mocking those who tried to correct him even those in public calling everyone sheep in a derogatory manner and stating if you don’t like it you can get out of here as well although he worded it quite harsher and with hell used not in context of place but vulgar in it’s place. Now, some will automatically jump to Political Parties and differences as the root cause of this, but indeed it is not, this Pastor as has many Christians have traded their citzenship for that of a wordly one, they have forgetten where their true allegience lies. So let’s look at scripture and see what the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:12-21

Philippians 3:12–21 CSB

Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things, Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

Here we find the Apostle Paul finishing up his exoration to knowing Christ, to dying of his old self or loosing what he once thought was important, but now sees as nothing more then “dung” moves on to speak about what is important, which is reaching the goal of knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Php 3:10–11.