Here are the 10 reasons I wanted to teach the book of Philippians:

1. How the church began. Acts 16: Lydia is a wealthy Asian (Thyatira); the slave girl is an oppressed Greek, and the jailer was a middle class Roman. All were transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the diversity of that cast.

2. The book teaches that the gospel advances regardless of circumstance (Phil. 1:12-18). In an age where it is not uncommon to hear that you can put God into your debt by behaving, I thought this was extremely important.

3. Paul’s cry “To live is Christ and die is gain!” How could he not say that! Lydia was wealthy, religious, and empty; the slave girl was bitter, oppressed, and angry; and the Roman jailer was indifferent and cruel. All were lost in their lives. What else would you live for?

4. The book clearly teaches humility in the life of a believer. We can’t hear that topic enough (Philippians 2).

5. Paul ferociously outlines the reasons to pursue Christ (Phil. 3:1-11).

6. Then, he follows it up by teaching how to pursue Christ (Phil. 3:12-21).

7. Chapter 4 talks about what the heart and mind of a man of God look like. This is invaluable information as there seems to be some confusion on this matter.

8. Contentment is a gift more precious than jewels (Phil. 4:10-19).

9. It gave me a chance to remind everyone that Philippians 4:13 isn’t about playing sports, making the team, or being successful in business.

10. Because if I can help us be “the lights of this world holding fast to the word of life” I would humbly and gladly spend my life doing so.

Want to watch the Philippians Study? You can buy the DVD Series here or Rent one Session at a Time here.

It is easier, but it is not best.

Every so often it is helpful as an employee to evaluate if you are worth what they are paying you. It is healthy and appropriate to determine: are you worth it? Are you worthy of the paycheck you are receiving? Are the actions and results you produce in your daily job, worth what you are being paid?

If we would be doing that for something as silly and temporary as a job, why wouldn’t we do that with our faith? It should be a wonderful checkup for us to evaluate our lives, examine our hearts and see if we are living a life worthy of the gospel.

Are we?

Want the whole teaching series on Philippians for your next group study?  You can either it buy it on DVD or rent/buy one session at a time with our exclusive digital delivery service. Click Here to Learn More.  This topic is featured in Session 2 of Philippians.

Though I am not as avid a world-traveler as many, I have been on numerous national and international mission trips. When I get back home, I generally tell my friends and family only a little bit about the culture, the sights, the accommodations, and the travel itself, but I spend the majority of my time talking to anyone that will listen about the people.

My photo albums are not filled with pictures of the (often breathtaking) scenery, but I have scores of pictures of the people that I met while serving there. The individuals in the area are the reason I went in the first place. They are the topics that consume my
post-trip conversations and memories which I will keep with me for life. The most important thing about the mission trip is the people. It is the people that endear the city to our heart. The same is true for Paul and the Philippians.

On Paul’s second missionary journey (recorded in Acts 16), he spends time in Philippi. It is this experience in Philippi that sets the backdrop for the letter that he would write later to the Philippians. Before we study that letter we need to meet the people that Paul met. This first session introduces us to three people that Paul met in Philippi whose stories the Scriptures have preserved for us to study for centuries. Their stories and backgrounds could not possibly be any different.

Though every church has a somewhat unique story of its beginnings, none is as unique as Philippi, the first church in the history of all of Europe. The story is far from how you and I would start the Christian movement on a continent. But then, again, God is a touch smarter than we are. The birth of the church in Philippi is truly an odd and seemingly unadvisable way to start a church, but isn’t that just like God?

Let us hear from you.

What are some amazing stories of how God started the church you attend? What are some of those people’s stories who are in your church? Perhaps you are one of those stories?

Want the whole teaching series on Philippians for your next group study?

You can either it buy it on DVD or rent/buy one session at a time with our exclusive digital delivery service.  This topic is featured in Session 1 of Philippians.

Anyone else out there relate? If not, then you either played at a D-1 college, that means big and good school, or maybe one of you actually played on TV.

Well after playing in what we call our ASL, that stands for All Suck League, (I hope that does not offend anyone, but it’s the best description for our level of play) last night, we had an awesome discussion about church, Bible preaching, small groups, music and worship trends. It was a lively, inspiring and encouraging conversation.

Two of the guys began asking me more about The Hub and who is our market and what do we do. As I shared with them that our passion is to walk closely through the Bible and to share tools that have a long shelf life becuase they focus on the meat and potatoes of the 66 books of scripture, one of the guys said, “have you ever heard of J. Vernon Mgee?”(http://www.thruthebible.org/site/c.irLMKXPGLsF/b.4104125/k.B262/Dr_J_Vernon_McGee.htm) I said, you do know that he died more than 20 years ago, right?  God is using J. Vernon perhaps more today than when he was alive.  Why? Why do you think?

My opinion is that his teaching was ‘through the Bible’ and at the end of the day, if you want to know God and His love and will for your life, you must and will end up in His Word, the Bible.

These two young guys said, “Hey, this stuff would be perfect for our guys group.  So often we never know what to study or what to go through for our time together.  This way, we can have sweet Bible teaching from an amazing communicator, we will know that it is accurate, inspiring and challenging and we can still have our sweet discussion time with the questions from the guide.”

Exactly!  The Hub exists for church and parachurch leaders, home groups and anyone who wants to engage in spiritual growing through the Bible whether in a group, or at home, in your own personal study.

And, with the digtial downloads and the ability to rent many of our resources  http://www.gotothehub.com/digital-downloads/ now you and your group can access these resources for about $4 or $5 per session.

So, get your fellers together and have a Hoops & Bible night.  Now that’s getting it done!

Doug

This is very difficult. For Matt, Lauren, their kids, family and for The Village. Not in my life have I seen God raise up so much love for a preacher in such a short time than I have with Matt.

It is a must that we bend our knees, hearts and minds and look only at Jesus. This does not and will not make sense to our human mind. We are not able to comprehend this kind of pain and suffering.

Do we bend our knees, hearts and mind with hope? Absolutely! As Paul says in Romans, we do not grieve as those without hope.

Matt, family, and The Village, those of us who have been blessed by God using you and His gifts He gave you to teach, we commit to pray for you all.

We will pray for physical healing. We will pray for Christ to be made known around the world so that many others will experience spiritual and eternal healing through this struggle.

It is not our way, but God’s ways are trustworthy, for He is the only true Trustworthy one.

God is with you, and us.

Watch his video below:

If you have won and want to share your video, please send them to eddie@gotothehub.com

Merry Christmas!

Our dear friend Matt Chandler is in a fight. For those of you who don’t know, here is the link to The Village Church website to get the latest updates.

Matt is a friend and the teacher of our brand new series on Philippians. The title of his series is the epic verse in Philippians, To Live is Christ and to Die is Gain.  Clearly a description for the journey Matt is on right now and of course it is the description for everyone of our lives.  The one major difference for Matt at this time in his life, is that he is clearly aware of his mortality and as he has said in his own words, “God is sovereign.”   For many of us…we still live in the land of ‘life is pretty good and may last forever.’

This is one of the most amazing journey’s I can only imagine and it is evident that God’s truth, love and grace are absolutely sustaining Matt and his family. When you watch this video of him just a day or so before brain surgery and you read his blog post, it is clear that as Matt’s body is weak, Christ is (of course) being made so real and strong.  God is giving Matt tremendous courage and He is being made STRONG in Matt.

I am grateful that in Matt’s blog and video there is clear evidence of real/honest/true emotions: tears, fear, questions – but  it is even more obvious the trust, belief, hope, confidence in Things Not Seen – but Things That Are Certain.

God, we wish it was not this way, that pain, awful struggle like Matt and his family are experiencing, are ways that we see your overwhelming love, power and peace, but it is clearly evident in Matt’s countenance and words.

God, we join with millions to pray. Please heal Matt. But we agree with Matt that your will be done and that through whatever struggle someone reading this might have, how great or how small, as we are found weak, we will trust you more because in those moments you are made strong.

Matt and Lauren, God is with you.

This Christmas get two Bible Studies for the price of one. Now you don’t have to choose between Daniel or Philippians or Romans and Song of Solomon. You can get two for the price of one!
Just enter the promo code lifechange at checkout and it will subtract $200 from your total. Promo ends Dec. 8, 2009 at midnight.

Save $200. Change Lives. Have a Merry Christmas!

1. #491 Tom “Ned Flanders” J.
2. #147 Jerry “Short and Sweet” Pilachowski
3. #7 Royce Zulu
4. #216 Richi
5. #17 Jamie “Upping His Chances” Hart

Bonus Winners

1. #1 Alan “I Never Sleep” Heflich – Early Bird Winner
2. #289 Mike – The Poor College Student – Random Comment Winner

Watch a Video of Us Picking the Winners

Contest Info Here

Matt Chandler is speaking at Catalyst this week and so we wanted to do something fun to promote his new BIble Study Philippians – To Live is Christ & To Die is Gain.

Leave us a comment about anything that you like, about Matt Chandler, Tommy Nelson, Mark Driscoll, the Catalyst Conference or any of your favorite teachers. We want to hear your comments and feedback about truth and how you go about learning God’s word.

We want to get to know you and we want you to get to know The Hub. To Preview the Philippians Study, CLICK HERE.

Winners will be announced Monday, October 12, 2009.

Rules:
Leave a comment between 12 a.m. Oct 6 to 12 a.m. Oct. 9. Leave as many comments as you want. We will then tally up the comments and pick a number from 1 to however many comments we receive. If your name falls on that number, then you win! It’s that simple. Winners will be notified on Monday October 12th.

No Purchase Necessary. Void where prohibited. Must be at least 18 years old to win.

Friends, we had a blast doing the Phil webinar. Wow, live video is so much fun and anything can happen. As many of you know the office building we were using and the entire block of buildings in Dallas had a power grid failure. Welcome to Texas Heat in the summer.

But, God reigns and made it happen. I felt like Matt did an amazing job sharing his heart and highlights of the To Live is Christ & to Die is Gain series.

The point that stands out the most to me so far in this study is that if we get everything else right, moral, legal, religious, but don’t get Jesus, love relationship with Him, we have missed the point. Matt says and asks in the series, what is the scariest verse in all the Bible, “depart from me for I never knew you.” I know some out there will think there is scare tactics or fear in that, I am not going there, I am just commenting that many of us have grown up in a ‘religious’ environment and ‘done’ church. True love, peace, purpose, and power that changes lives is when we Know Christ and He fills our lives. Then we are different. Then we can make a difference for Christ and eternity, not for a ‘religious’ group.

This study in Philippians has absolutely challenged me to know the Word better and to pray and know Christ more intimately. I don’t want ‘business as usual’ in my walk with Christ, I want to experience Him, and His power and Love.

Let’s discuss…
Doug