Mar 29, 2010

Series on Philippians #17

Peace Found (or Defeating Worry and Every other Sin)
Philippians 4:6-9


Let’s pray…

Okay, before we get started let me tell you, we will have a pop quiz a little later and the answer to all the questions will be Jesus. So tuck that away and let’s get going.

Last week we discussed the end of Philippians 4:5 through verse 6 and to sum it up if you weren’t here, or to review if you were, The Lord is near. Jesus is coming back and that is great news if you are a believer.

He’s in control and He’s on your side if you are a believer, so don’t worry about anything. Worry is a lack of faith and that’s a sin.

So, how do I (you) {we} keep from worrying? By prayer. We go to God in our quiet time for close, devotional, intimate prayer each day, but we don’t leave him there. We recognize that God is always with us, so we continue to pray to Him throughout the day and we pray about everything. About what? About EVERYTHING. Agreed?

That means when we see a flowering tree, we thank God for the beauty and our ability to see it.
When we get an awesome cup of coffee with the perfect temp and not too bitter, we praise God for coffee and the person who made it.

When we almost get hit while walking on the crosswalk, we thank God for our safety and we give our anger and or fright up to God and ask Him to calm us down before we do something stupid.

When our husband or wife or child or parent gets terribly sick, we go to our Lord with our requests for healing and we ask him to strengthen our faith and we lean into Him. All the while praying ultimately for His will to be done in the situation.

When that same person dies of the illness, or when they are hit by a bus and die, we take our honest grief, frustration, anger, and questions to God. That’s our first line of defense. We don’t hash it out first with some other lost fool. We take our hurt directly to the Lord.

Sometimes we’re going to be praying with nothing but sobs, but praying nonetheless.

In all things, we go to our Lord in prayer. That is how we deal with worry. Now let’s read tonight’s passage and we’ll see that there is more that we can do. If you are someone who likes some real practical, a + b = c type stuff, this message is for you tonight.

Paul lays out what NOT to do, what to do INSTEAD, and he gives A PROMISE of what we will get if we follow the directions.
And listen, last week we hammered on the fact that worry is a sin. We don’t give it another name, we don’t look the other way, we don’t run away from it, we don’t… No, we tackle it with the Gospel and kill that sin. This passage is how to defeat – how to kill – the sin of worry and find peace.

That said, YOU may not be worried about worry, that may not be an issue that grips you. But I’ve got good news. I’ve been looking over this passage for a few weeks with a series of different lenses and let me tell you, I believe it works as a weapon against all kinds of sin.

So if worry isn’t a problem for you, but lust is. Follow the same steps that we’re going through tonight. If you’re not worried or lusting, but you’re full of anger or pride and self-righteousness, same rules apply. Follow these directions.

If I haven’t named the sin that has had you in a corner lately, maybe it’s just laziness, or greed, whatever. Beat that sin down with this passage. Now, Philippians 4:6-9:


If you’ll notice, we are starting with verse six again. And that’s by design.

Again, I want you to plug your sin(s) into the passage. I think if you dig down and are honest worry is on the list, but then I want to go back to prayer.

The rest of the process described is positive thinking and actions and promises. I wanted last week to push prayer and I wanted to hit it again tonight before we go on, because it has to be made a central part of our lives as Christ followers.

If we don’t make a conscious effort to redouble our prayer life, we can get off track quickly.
You might think that this is easy for me because I’m the pastor, but I definitely struggle with this.

I’m pretty good with the Oh, no! prayers and I’m usually good with the thanks for the big stuff prayers, but I’m terribly undisciplined with quiet time, devotional time and the like and I’m not yet to a point in my moment to moment prayers where my first reaction, my reflex is to ask God for help before I speak in frustration or anger.

If you are a new Christian or an old Christian, I’m calling you to really focus on your prayers. This is not just a one-week challenge to pray for a week. This is every day, every moment, like I said last week, this should be like breathing for the Christ follower. PRAY.

Moving on, if we pray about everything – good and bad, there’s a promise…


The promise here is that if we really start to pray IN FAITH about EVERYTHING and connect with God on this level, then we are going to have peace that transcends all understanding. And that peace is like a bouncer at the club, and he’s not letting worry past the ropes.

What’s that mean? People are going to be asking, what’s is up with you? Don’t you get it? The sky is falling, why aren’t you joining our panic party?

The world is not going to understand. And listen, there are a lot of people within the church who are also going to be clueless here. They are going to be asking you to join them, or they are going to ask how to get some of what you’ve got, because listen peace is attractive to people who have been in the whirlwind of chaos for a while.

And, when it says that it will be a peace that transcends ALL understanding, that is going to mean your understanding too at times.

Maybe you’ve been there. Have you ever looked back over a few years and been like, man, 20 year old me would have never made it through this. Wait a minute, how’d I get through this? Why am I calm?

And again, that’s all dealing with worry, but look through this with your sin in the spotlight.

Any sin is a violation of God’s design for our life and when we are outside of the will of God, our fellowship is damaged and we are NOT going to be at peace.

When we slide back into the rut of sin, we revert to being like Adam and Eve, trying to hide from God and blaming one another for our problems. But, when we go to Him and flee from sin, we are promised to find peace. Incomprehensible peace.

Now, Paul fleshes it all out some more. He’s adding more weapons to our arsenal.

This is not simply a new-age power of positive thinking sham. It is Paul saying, as you empty your heart and mind of worry (or your sin of lust, anger, pride, greed, laziness, etc.) don’t leave it empty, fill it back up. And make sure you fill it with the right thing. Otherwise we’ll have a whole new round of trouble.

I told you there was going to be a pop quiz. Here it goes. We are told to think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy.

Answer these questions, in light of the Scriptural teachings on Jesus:
Who is the ultimate source of truth, in which there is no deceit?
Who is our noble King?
Who is our example of righteousness?
Who was completely pure, a spotless lamb, sacrificed in our place?
Who is most lovely, unblemished by sin?
Who are we to admire most?
Who is the most excellent, superior to all others? And who is most worthy of our praise?

If we don’t look at Jesus as the ultimate in each of those categories, we run the risk of looking to other things or other people and making them into idols that we turn to in order to defeat our worry, or to defeat other sins.

When we are racked buy temptation to sin, our recourse is to pray to our God and to meditate on the truth, nobility, righteousness, purity, loveliness, admiration, excellence and praiseworthiness of Jesus.

We think of Him as our King and the perfect example for our lives. We meditate on the fact that He is true to His word and that He will never leave us or forsake us. We think about the fact that He could have left us to suffer the wrath due to us for our sin, but instead came down from Heaven, lived a sinless life that we were unable to live and went to the cross to carry the weight of our sin load and absorb the wave of wrath that we should have suffered.

We think about the gift of His mercy and grace. We think about the gift of the Holy Spirit that followed after Jesus to fill every believer to guide and protect and to sanctify us for the return of our King.

We think on these things and we pray and we do this all the time. Don’t listen to your idle thoughts, take every thought captive and praise the Lord instead.

Now don’t hear me say not to think on the many other lesser things that also have qualities of truth and nobility and righteousness and purity.

Do fill your time thinking about your family and maybe aspects of your job and the good qualities of your nation and the beauty of nature or the amazing designs of men in the cities. Enjoy and spend time in books and watching movies.

Think about and enjoy great food and drink.

But please, please, please do not let any of those lesser things become greater in your heart than Jesus. Always find a way to thank God for those things that bring you joy and peace. He is the author of those things.

Now we’re almost done, look again in Philippians 4:9

If you weren’t here last year, one of our first series of sermons came from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. It amazes me how nearly every other sermon can be tied back into that treasure trove of Jesus’ teaching. Let’s not end simply on Paul, as great as he was, let’s go back to the source and see how Jesus said this same thing.

Matthew 7:24-27
{UNPACK}

Communion…
Let’s pray…
Posted by

Mar 22, 2010

Series on Philippians #16

Defeating Worry with Prayer
Philippians 4:5b-6

Let's Pray...

Okay, last week we discussed how - the fact that the Lord is near should cause us to be reasonable, or gentle, to the point to where all people we interact with notice our God honoring gentleness.

Fleshing it out, we said, since Jesus is coming back at any time — could be right now, could be another 2,000 years — but He’s coming back.

And since He’s coming back, we want to be people who live lives with Gospel intentionality.

Since our friends and family who are far from God are on their way to hell if they don’t respond to the Gospel before Christ returns, we want to live lives that draw them into gospel conversations.
So anyway, last week’s message was be gentle BECAUSE the Lord is near.

Tonight we are going to piggyback on the same fact, the fact that the Lord is near, that He’s coming back soon, and we’re going to see another implication of that fact.

This one is less about God and others – God and Non-believers — and more about God and YOU – God and the Christ follower.

Now, if you are here and you are not a Christian, we’ll bring this back around, so please stay tuned in.

Last week was: God’s coming back so we want more people to be saved than damned on the day He returns.

That was a very important truth. I pray that your heart never stops breaking for the lost. That broken heart will drive you back to Lord and that return to the Lord will perfectly position you to co-labor with the Holy Spirit in the lives of the lost. That’s what YOU are here for as a Christian.

But this week we’re going somewhere else: Since the Lord is near, and you are a believer, than you need not live in fear. Instead you can find comfort, strength, peace and power while waiting on the Lord. Let’s read the text again…

Philippians 4: 5b-6

So, since the Lord is near, DO NOT be anxious. The Holy Spirit — through Paul — is giving us a command. A command not to worry.

Now I say this while at the same time knowing that we are in troubling times. Political power swings wildly from one party to the other. Terrorists have attacked our nation and we are told that they may attack again at any time. Fear of terrorists causes Americans to say and do terrible and sometimes stupid things to people whom they know little to nothing about. The environment is whacked out. Kids are dying all across the globe of diseases that are easy to cure and prevent. There are a million and one ways we kill other people from the womb through old age. We excuse some ways of murder (abortion), we condemn others (school shootings) and we ignore the rest (genocide).

And those are just the big troubles. We have a lot of other reasons we worry, don’t we?

Some of us see the scope of world problems and we just don’t worry because we feel powerless. Those problems are too big. But there are some other worries, closer to home that we obsess over.

These might be some of your worries: Can I or my family afford to go to the doctor – even with insurance? Are we going to keep our jobs, or is the plant, or branch going to close down? Is my family going to be able to eat? Are we going to get the bills paid? Does my classmate or co-worker like me or do they think I’m annoying? Does this outfit make me look stupid, or fat, or outdated? Is my kid going to do well in school? Does my mom or dad think I’m a good parent?
I could go on and on. Some of those sound silly, but how many of you would admit that even the silly worries occupy space in your mind at times?

The fact is there are a million reasons to worry. So what do we do? I’m not asking what does the Bible tell us to do. I’m asking, honestly, what do we do with worry?

We run away from the worries – diverting our attention with shopping, pointless conversations about pop culture or pop-psychology, or philosophy, or politics.

We divert our attention by sitting through endless hours of television, by running our kids to a bunch of events and sports activities, by stacking up our schedules — all so we don’t have time to sit in the quiet and stillness. Because, it’s in that quiet and stillness that the worries come in and invade our hearts the most.

Some of us have tried (or still do try) to medicate our worries away. We have tried to dull our senses with drug or drink so we could just let our worries drift into oblivion.
If that’s you, eventually you come to realize that every time you come to your senses again, those old worries and fears are still there. And most of the time, at least in my past, I always “came to” with a handful, or truckload of new problems. Problems caused by trying to escape the worries.

If we are honest, we all lose sleep over the worries – whether yours are big or small.

Or, worse than trying on our own power to escape the worries, we EMBRACE the worry and try to justify it. We make excuses for why we HAVE TO worry and then we drag other people into the worry with us.

No matter what, let’s call this what it is. Beyond worry, or concern, or anxiety, or doubt, or fear, or fretting, or stewing or whatever we want to label it. Beyond any name that you want to give for your worry; the worry is simply sin. It is sin. It is sin.

See, first and foremost, worry is an absence of faith. It is a sign that we have forgotten — or NEVER really believed — that God is all powerful, that God is completely in control and that God is deeply in love with us, that God is working out all things for good, according to His purposes. Simply put worry is a sure sign that we have forgotten that the Lord is near. And that worry; that lack of faith, is sin.

Hebrews 11:6 tells us

And Romans 14:23b reads:

And when we see sin, we need to take it seriously and we need to fight it head on. When God’s people found them selves in sin, from Moses to King David to Paul, they didn’t excuse it they repented, they turned away from the sin and went to the Lord in prayer.

Now as I say all of that, I know what some of you might be thinking. Ken, I can’t fight it. You say, I’ll repent from the big ones. I’ll repent from lust and anger, maybe greed, but I can’t break free of the worry. I have so much stuff going on, I can’t help but worry.

But again, if you see worry as a violation of a Scriptural command — if you see it as a SIN, then that excuse can be chucked out the window. That excuse has to be ditched if you are God’s child. Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love me keep my commands.”

Murder is a sin. Would anyone agree with a person who says, “I have all these people who are driving me nuts, I can’t help but kill ‘em.”
Or what about adultery? What about stealing? No, it would be ludicrous to go along with those things. Those things are sin. That’s easy to see.
If we are brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to try to stop those things.

But the difference is, our friends will feed the fire of worry. They might talk you out of murder, but they’ll be your accomplices in the sin of worry.

In fact, some people in my family will give you reasons to worry if you seem too peaceful. As though I’m not aware of what’s going on. Like I’m clueless.

But we — Christians DON”T have to worry. We DO have a choice. And unlike others, we have the power, the only true power to defeat this sin of worry in our lives.

The power comes from the cross. Let me ask you, which of your sins were paid for by Christ on the cross? It’s not a trick question. They were all paid for. When you put your faith in the saving work of Christ on the cross, God took your sin debt and laid it upon His Son. And God credited the righteousness of Jesus to your account.

And when those sins were laid upon Him, they were defeated, they were taken away. You may still have the old slave mentality, that tries to leave you convinced that you have to sin, in the case of tonight’s message, that old slave mentality, that tries to leave you convinced that you have to worry.

But that’s bunk. You are a conqueror. That fight is over. You’ve just got to get that truth into your head and into your heart and HOLD ON TO IT so that when that old devil tries to throw it back into your face, you can smack it down.
And you don’t smack it down by your power. You do it by the power of God. The LORD IS NEAR! He’s got your back! You are not fighting alone. You aren’t backed into a corner! As God’s child, you’ve got the power of the universe standing at your side and He is ready to lead you through the battle.

A pastor I was listening to this week said, "The only sin you can make ANY progress in defeating is FORGIVEN Sin" - John Piper

Family, that sin of worry is forgiven, you and I need to start LIVING in that truth. But How?

You and I hear this and we say, Paul, I’ve been trying but I just can’t get past this worry. I worry about my kids, my wife, my job, my retirement, my house – whatever your worry is. I can’t get over this Paul. And, when one worry does stop, another one jumps right in.

To that, Paul tells us, you’ve tried it your way long enough. It’s time to do something different. He writes:
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but (instead of worrying, instead of dwelling in that sin, dwell in God instead. Look what he says…) in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Paul says, get into a rhythm of talking with God — About everything. Paul doesn’t say wait until you're in over your head before you pray.

No, start now whether things are good or bad, start praying start talking with God. And go to Him with everything.

Now I know, this is an English translation of the Bible, what does the Greek mean when it says everything. The Greek word for everything in verse 6 is pas. Guess what it means: each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything. Paul says pray to God about everything. The Lord is near.

Imagine if your husband or wife or best friend or parent was always walking by your side, all the time. Do you think they would want you to ignore them until there was an emergency?

How awkward and cruel. We do this with God all the time. As believers, we are told that God is not simply beside us. Jesus is coming back in a physical form and He’s coming soon. But until then, God is actually with us, indwelling us through the Holy Spirit.

But we walk around like He doesn’t exist until something big comes up.
When we want a big deal to go through, when our family has a death, when someone’s in the hospital, when a car crosses the center line and is headed straight for us, we’re quick to yell out, “Jesus, help me!”

And there’s nothing wrong with any of that. But that’s not the extent of our relationship to God. He wants us to dialogue with Him. Pray to God about EVERYTHING. My old pastor in Ohio said, make it like breathing. Make it that continuous. Make it that natural in your life rhythm.

So how do we pray? Read the verse again

Ask for what you need, ask for your wants to be conformed to God’s will. Study the Lord’s Prayer this week as a great template for your petitions, requests to God. And look again. It says to pray and request with thanksgiving. So many times we get so focused on the things that we don’t have or what we are concerned about that we forget what gifts we have been given in this life.

One of the quickest ways that I can get out from under worry in my life is by praying out a gratitude list to the Lord. It’s a way of reminding yourself of what He has already done for me and around me.

If you’ve never made a gratitude list, you might want to write it down the first few times.

It can be a mix of the simple and the profound.
I like to start with the obvious and sometimes I pray and ask Him to show me things that I might have overlooked in the busyness of life.

I was debating whether to share the things that make it on to my list. I don’t think I will because yours is your own and no two will be the same except for the first thing on our list: Lord, I’m grateful that you saved me from my sin, I am grateful that you adopted me into your family and that I can look forward in faith to the day you return and I am able to see you in all of your glory and am able to live with you and all other believers in the new Heavens and new Earth.

Beyond that, our gratitude lists might differ, but as believers we can all be thankful for God’s grace.

There is much more to look at in this passage, we’re going to leave the rest (verses 7-9) until next week.

But until we get together again next week, I want to challenge you to make this a week of prayer. I want you to set aside time to be alone be by yourself and just start to develop this discipline of daily devotional prayer.

But also, I want you to take seriously the portion that tells you to pray about everything. Breathe prayer this week.
Breathe – forgive me for… (That one is key. Make sure that you come to God with a repentant heart and life when you pray.)
Breathe - thanks for the weather.
Breathe – thanks for my family.
Breathe – thanks for…
Breathe – help me with this relationship.
Breathe – help me with this task at work (or school)
Breathe – please bless them.
Breathe – please heal me of…
Breathe – please help me to rest.
Breathe – Lord, I’m feeling off track. Please help me to start this day over from here.
Breathe prayer everywhere you go.

And listen aside from your quiet time, when I would suggest you pray on your knees or laying flat on the ground, or if you’re immobile at least pray with your head down on a table – the rest of the time this is conversing with God as you walk and work, and eat and shower, and… Just start talking to God and in EVERYTHING, with prayers and petitions, with a grateful heart, let your requests, thoughts, burdens and joys be know to God. Amen?

We’re going to continue this next week with some very practical, Biblical tips in addition to prayer that we are able to use as Christians to kill the sin of worry in our hearts.

Until then, Let’s pray…
Posted by

Mar 15, 2010

Series on Philippians #15

Why should I rejoice? Why should I be gentle?
Philippians 4:4-5

Philippians 4

Let's Pray...
There are a couple chunks that we’re going to dissect from these verses tonight. First, Rejoice – which is review. And, second, be reasonable for a reason that we don’t usually talk about in the church anymore.

Let’s go,
1. Rejoice.

This isn’t new is it? I’ve said before that if you see something repeated over and over in the Bible, you really need to fix your eyes on that kind of target.

For example, the nation of Israel was told again and again in the Old Testament a repetition of, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.”

God said it again and again. He didn’t want His people to forget who He was, what their relationship with Him was like, or what He had done for them. And He wanted them to remember who to thank, who to praise and who to depend on.

Paul is doing the same thing when he tells the Philippians (and tells us) to REJOICE. And again rejoice.

He says it twice in this one verse, but joy, rejoicing and gladness are the strings of thread that have sewn the letter of Philippians together.

Chapter 1:
Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

Chapter 4:

All of these references to joy and rejoicing and gladness are tied into God, and the church — and the Christian’s relationship to God and the Christian’s relationship to our brother’s and sisters of the faith.

I was going to just skim over verse 4 because we have covered rejoicing SO MUCH already in this book. But this — this JOY — is vital to Paul.

To Paul, it seems that our joy in the Lord is key to our perseverance and endurance. It is key to our courage. It is key to our boldness and it is key to our reflection of who God is.
Rejoice in the LORD! ALWAYS.
Now, let’s investigate. Let me turn this spotlight on to your heart. Don’t answer these questions aloud right now. But, let this verse – this command of the Holy Spirit that was given to us through Paul – let it sink in for you.

Don’t think about your neighbor or spouse who might need to hear this. This is for you.

Paul writes, Rejoice in the LORD! ALWAYS.

If I polled your co-workers, church friends, family, classmates, friends at the senior center, friends at the bar, or your friends at the legion, or the waitress at the last restaurant you ate at – how would they describe you? Joyous?

If I asked people who see you all the time, and then asked strangers that you only encountered for a few moments, what would they say? Rejoicing?

What Kind of image of the Lord do you convey on a regular basis? And what about when you are waiting in a long line at the store, or when the cook messes up your order in a diner, or someone takes your right of way or drives too slow in front of you on the road?

How do you come across? Sad, Mopey, Defeated, Annoyed, Enraged, Impatient, Frustrated?

Or joyful? Paul is clear. As he was carried along by the Holy Spirit, Paul said rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS.

How’s your always? Is your joy based on what’s outside around you or is it based on the Lord who dwells in you?

This is no game. People are watching at all times. Church folk are looking and you might be that encourager to them with your joy.

Some of the antagonistic Atheists and agnostics might be watching you and looking for an absence of joy so as to write off the God you claim.

Lost and hurting non-believers are looking for a ray of hope, looking for an answer, looking for joy. They don’t even know it yet, but they are looking for your Joy in the Lord. They are looking for something to cling to. Will they find it?

This command is real and it is for you. You are not your own. You are a billboard for the God of the Universe in which He can reflect His love, grace and peace.

This is not optional. Now, I’ve heard people say that they keep their faith quiet and subdued so, since no one knows they are Christians, they don’t have to reflect joy.

That would be a fine excuse, except that those who know Christ do not biblicaly ever want to keep quiet.

There’s no story of a man or woman in the Scriptures who was dead in their sin; who was bound for Hell; who was then saved by faith in Jesus by the grace of God - only to follow up their salvation with a quiet life of blending in, so as not to make waves.

It doesn’t happen that way. Not to people who really GET what God gave them.

If you understand the alternative to faith in Christ, and don’t live to show others life, then that is completely un-loving.
If you say you have faith but don’t love your brother, then that faith is a lie.

I’m just going to leave you with that as a challenge. Maybe you need to search your heart. Do you really understand the gift you’ve been given? And do you understand the COMMAND to rejoice? It’s not just for you. It’s not just so you can have the warm fuzzy feelings in your heart.

Your joy is a flashing sign that says GOD is Real. And God is Enough. And GOD satisfies like no other.
Simply put, your calling to rejoice is for God’s glory. It is to make much of Him and we get the side benefit.
Do we get that?

Moving on to verse 5:
Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. (NIV)
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. (ESV)

Now before we hit that first part, let’s look at the end of the verse, it’s tricky. Depending on the translation, the punctuation can go several ways. Some translations have the end of verse 5 connected to verse the beginning of verse 5, while other punctuations tie it into the next verse.

I honestly don’t know which is correct, but I’ll show how “The Lord is near” can apply to both.

First it is a reason for the command in verse five. Why should you let your gentleness be evident to all? Because the Lord is near.

Be gentle {epieikes (epy-I-case)} can be read as gentle, patient, moderate.
So, let your patients be evident to all. A lot of the old time preachers tied this to a patient heart that didn’t fly off the handle when offended and a heart that — like Jesus — was quick to forgive offences.

How are we doing there? As a parent, as a spouse, as a co-worker, as an employer, as a citizen within a political party – how are you doing in those areas? Would your peers (and enemies) describe you as patient, gentle or moderate?
Why should you be gentle, or as the ESV reads, reasonable TO EVERYONE? Again, it’s because the Lord is near.

Now is that a warning? As in “the Lord’s coming back at any moment, so you need to be reasonable, so that when Jesus returns He doesn’t find you cussing out your kids, or a co-worker, or talking about your boss behind his back?”
Is that what Paul’s getting at?

Or does the Lord is near mean to remind you that the Lord is coming back, and it could be any minute now, without warning — so make every interaction a Christ honoring interaction, so that people might be drawn to your gentleness and possibly find an open door to a saving Gospel conversation with you before the second Coming of Christ — before it is too late.

Is that what Paul’s getting at?
The answer, I believe is yes. Yes to both.

In one sense, Paul could be seen here as that guy wearing the sandwich board, that reads THE LORD IS NEAR! Or JESUS IS COMING, ARE YOU READY?

Now here me out, most of those guys are whacked out, and I’ve never seen those signs as effective evangelism tools.
But, it is biblically accurate.
Turn to 2 Peter 3:9-13 with me. In this passage, the apostle Peter reminds us that, even though it seems like it’s been so long that the Lord might NEVER return, He is not on our schedule.

He is coming back and it could be any time and that truth carries a lot of weight that we don’t feel often enough.
2 Peter 3 (Unpack as I go)
He’s coming back and then what is done is done. Then, it’s all over but the dividing.

Now, next week, we are going to see how Jesus coming back is the source, the spring, in which we find hope and peace.

But, on point, here in Philippians 4:5 we must see this as a truth that says, “Get up! Move the Gospel forward, not only with your words and actions, but also with your demeanor, with your attitude, with your body language and reactions in life. All of life at work and at play, when you are being praised and when your cast down by your friends and loved ones. Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS.

Don’t be a person who speaks gospel truth and then demonstrates a spirit that hinders the Gospel.

Act in accordance to God’s will as written in the Scriptures, and “let your gentleness be evident to all. THE LORD IS NEAR!”

On a side note, remember that this is a letter to believers - To the church. Paul isn’t wearing his “THE LORD IS NEAR” sandwich board on a street corner, screaming TURN OR BURN at a crowd of people on their way to a bar.

No, he’s coming along side his family of true believers and pleading with them. Remember this in the context of last week’s message where he pleads with the women to agree in the Lord.

He’s pleading with you and I to let our gentleness be evident to everyone.

He’s pleading with us to be reasonable and encouraging at church, where outsiders might be looking in.

He’s pleading with you to be solid in your faith – a faith that leads to gentleness at home, where your children are looking at your every move — not just the face you put on for Sunday morning.

He says, be reasonable, don’t gossip or complain or hold grudges at work. Don’t dig for dirt, or provide dirt at the water cooler or on you phone. Be the first at work and everywhere else to forgive, be the first to show integrity, be the first to show respect to the superiors in the office, or factory, or wherever God has you.

No matter where you are, shine like stars in the darkness.

Paul pleads this point with the Philippians and I plead with you. We do not know when the last day will be. So live your life as though today is the last.

What’s that mean for a believer? You’re secure. But what about your non-believing friends, family, co-workers, classmates and enemies?

If they do not have faith in Christ, then it is not good news for them that the Lord is near.

Let your gentleness be evident to all. Don’t waste the encounters that you have with non-believers. Live and breathe with God honoring, God rejoicing, compassionate, gentle Gospel intentionality until you breathe your last breath or until he returns.

This isn’t a scriptural suggestion that you can decide not to do as a Christ follower. This is a biblical mandate.

Rejoice in the Lord Always. I’ll say it again, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to everyone because the Lord is near.

Let’s pray…
Posted by

Mar 6, 2010

Series on Philippians #14

Agree or: How We Learned to Stop Arguing and Love the Lord
Philippians 4:1-3

Philippians 4

Let's Pray...
Okay, We've steadily been moving through this book of Philippians. It is a letter written by Paul a couple thousand years ago to a church in a city called Philippi.

By all accounts this was a church that was getting things right -
Over and over again Paul keeps talking about the joy that he feels when he hears about the Philippians. They're striving together; they are staying faithful through persecution. They are staying encouraged and they are keeping up their encouragement of Paul while he is imprisoned.

And throughout the letter, Paul encourages them to keep on the path. He reminds them over and again, from the first verses – and throughout the first three chapters – that their source for strength, their perfect example, their reason and way for living is Jesus Christ.

And several times he has made warnings. He warns against false teachers. He says when they come in trying to preach works based salvation, don't be fooled.

He says if they come in with that garbage, remember what I've told you, there is only one way to Heaven. There is only one way to enter into the throne room of God. There is only one way to receive the washing away of your sins.

That ONE WAY is through faith in the perfect and once-for-all sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross for YOU.

Now this theme doesn't change much in the first verse of chapter Four, but we do see a noticeably different element in verses 2 and 3.

That's where we are going to camp out tonight, verses 1-3. I don't think we're going to go long tonight for two reasons. First, much of this is review and second we are not quite to the point where I see this issue, the issue of internal conflict – conflict between members in the Church in the Grass.

That doesn't mean that we won't have it later. As Andy pointed out to me this week, “we know that there will be issues like this (one between Euodia and Syntyche) within big C and little c church - after all, it's run by fallible, sinful humans so there will be conflicts.

So, knowing that these things will come, they will happen, we all need to prepare for the fight against division (a fight against division sounds odd – it's like a double negative, except we fight the negative of these kinds of conflicts with the positive of Christ-centered-ness)

We have to be mindful of the fact that's these conflicts will arise and set our hearts in the right direction so that we can approach the situation the way Jesus Christ would handle it.
We can't hide from conflict.

And, I don't know, maybe we do have this problem and I just don't see it yet. If that's the case, praise God for dealing with you in His word despite my obtuseness.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start by looking back at Philippians 4:1 again and chew on it for a little while.
1 Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

Why's Paul say “therefore” what's he pointing us back to? Is it the whole of chapter three? I think it might be helpful to read it that way, but if we look at what he says right after the “therefore” then it seems to make more sense to just start back at chapter 3 verse 20:

In other words, we see the “therefore and can say that because you are citizens of Heaven.

And, since WE are waiting together on the guarantee of a retuning, conquering King Jesus.
And since He - Jesus - this King who loves us, will come in the power of God in such away that EVERYTHING will be brought under His control – mainly, the effects of sin will be destroyed and cast away FOREVER.

And, since by the same mighty and incomprehensible power, He will also perfect us in Resurrection bodies – bodies free of sin, free of disease, aging, wounds of this world – and with Resurrection eyes and hearts that will be able to take in the glory of God without the grime of sin impeding our view.

“THEREFORE,” With all of that as the centerpiece of your hopes, and the object of your affection and the desire of your heart – STAND FIRM!

As individual sinners saved by grace, STAND FIRM IN THE FAITH THAT SAVED YOU!
And as the Church, a scattered and unlikely bunch of sinners - transformed into saints by the grace of God, STAND FIRM!

With the fact that the non-believers around us are going to look for the weaknesses in our armor in which to attack us, we need to make sure that we are at least unified under Christ in the Church.

As the Church, STAND FIRM in CHRIST!

And He's going to get into two pieces – at least two that I see here.

Here are the two pieces I see. (1) We stand firm when we pour the grace and forgiveness that we have received from God into our relationships in the Church.

And (2) we stand Firm when we focus what we are about on the central theme of Christ and Him crucified.

This helps us stand firm and remain in unity because it will focus our hearts on the focus of God's heart.

God's heart is seen when He determined before time began to send His son to die on the cross for us.

What was the goal of that? To reconcile His people to Himself. So that we might find our joy eternally in Him and so that we might worship Him and His glory forever.

If we get that. IF we get that, it set us on a course to spread this message of reconciliation to every tribe and tongue and nation until Jesus returns in His glory and it will quell – It will smash the division amongst God's children.

Let's get back to the text, so you can see it there.


I could spend a lot of time dissecting who these two people were. A lot of smart people throughout church history have done so and there's probably some use to it, but sometimes I think we seek that sort of thing so much that we loose sight of the ability of ALL of Scripture to speak into each of OUR lives.

Based on what we've read so far in Philippians, I see this as Paul very gently nipping an issue in the bud. An issue that could easily escalate into a major divide among God's people.

And, since it seems that these two were some sort of co-laborers with Paul in the church, their divide might very well cause a chasm to form among the believers throughout the city.

So, Paul lovingly says to Euodia and Syntyche to knock it off. In fact he not only asks them to do it, He pleads with them.

Paul doesn't see a conflict and simply hope that it will go away, no he risks his own comfort and gets into the mess and calls others in the church to do the same thing.

So many times we just look the other way when we see conflict in the church. We think that someone else will deal with it or that it's not any of our business or maybe it isn't too big of a deal.

And the conflict goes on until it has become SO big that lives begin to get wrecked, the effectiveness of the Church in the city is damaged, and sometimes church up and dies.

Or worse yet another church gets started – not on a foundation of loving God and loving others – but instead, on a foundation of resentment the last church.

Do you think God is going to bless that?

So Paul pleads with his sisters. He pleads with his fellow change agents who are called by God, called with Paul and called with you and with me, to die to ourselves and let the little things go (ultimately they are all “little things”)

Andy sent this note to me about this area of the message:
Matthew 5:21-26, where Jesus warns against anger, is part of the Sermon on the Mount that could tie in with this area.
“For me, anyway, it is my anger over some little thing that festers into a full-blown conflict. If I would simply recognize that and repent and communicate my emotion before I let it hunker down I could save myself a lot of trouble.”

And ultimately anger usually points out pride issues in our lives and in our relationships.
We need to smash our pride so that we can become less and Christ can be seen as greater.

Really, He already is greater, but we deny that, or at least lose sight of that, when we try to fight for our rights to the point that it hinders the gospel.

There is no reason that we can point to in which we should not be forgiving one another when we are wronged and come back together under an umbrella of God's grace for God's mission.

And there's no reason that we shouldn't be quick to apologize and seek forgiveness when we are the ones who sin against another person.

This reconciliation deal is a two way street, sometimes we are going to have to apologize, sometimes we'll be the ones who need to forgive.

If we let our pride rise up. If we allow wicked friends (inside or outside the church) to convince us that were justified in our sin and that we should NOT apologize, then we are not only heading down a road of pain and isolation and misery and a road toward a war torn heart, we are also dragging the church with us down that same dark path.

Listen; there is no such thing as a sin that doesn't hurt the people around you.
Look at the drunken mom or the deadbeat dad.
Look at the lazy co-worker.
Look at the politician who seeks the next election more than the needs of the people.
And, in this context look at the church, when we take our eyes off of God's reconciliation and restoration with the world.


If the shoe fits, then plug your name or names in here.

I plead with _______ and ______to agree in the LORD!

There is so much a stake!
I've seen people yelling at the top of their lungs in church because their teenager wasn't allowed to watch kids in the nursery. They left their church!

Meanwhile there are people out there, and people who attend church every week, who are going to Hell because our passions are not directed in sharing the Gospel, Our passions are directed on getting our way, our desires are for us to be made much of, for us to be RESPECTED, for us to be honored,

Instead we are called to pour our lives out, and to count everything – EVERYTHING - as nothing - as rubbish, compared to the surpassing greatness of Jesus Christ.

Agree in the Lord. That is, focus your hearts on the Gospel and it will cause you to ask forgiveness and it will cause you to forgive - IF YOU ARE HIS.

Remember, Scriptures tell us that the way of Christ seems foolish to those who are not in Christ. To those who are not truly believers, this message will be a stumbling block.

If you are not in Christ, you will say, “No, you are asking too much. No, Paul, you don't understand what they did to me.”

If that was your response as you heard this message, I would plead with you to be reconciled to God tonight. Until you are reconciled to God through faith in Christ, no reconciliation with others will amount to anything. Be reconciled to God.
LOVE GOD and He will transform your heart so that you will be able to love others.

Now, again, we are a young church and we are a small church so far and we haven't struggled with much in the way of internal conflict yet.

But, as a good friend likes to add when I say things like that, “This too shall pass, Ken. This too shall pass.”

When it does happen. I want you to remember this passage and I want you to pray, “Lord, show me, show us, how to get past this conflict by agreeing on what we know is true about You, Jesus.”

And don't forget the rest of the passage:

Remember that we are one body. When we see conflict between our family members, between other parts of our body, we need to swoop in with loving and compassionate correction toward the goal of reconciliation.

Skip over to James 3:14-18 with me. In this passage, James lays out the contrast between healthy and damaging relationships for believers.
First the sinful side:


Don't ignore the early symptoms.
A toothache, or reoccurring pain in you physical body is a sign of deeper problems that usually get worse if they are not addressed.

In the same way, hints of bickering, whispered gossip, or even subtle facial expressions that change when a brother or sister comes into a room – or leaves a room - may be the early signs of a problem that needs to be tended to in the spiritual body.

Don't wait until it is too late and drastic measures need to be taken. And don't wait so long that the one-time small malady becomes a terminal disease.

Now the rest of the passage that I want to read there in James 3 describes what it's like when we're tracking...


What more can I say except, agree in the Lord.

Let's Pray...
Posted by

Mar 1, 2010

Series on Philippians #13

REJOICE!
Philippians 3

Lot's of text to cover tonight, let's pray and then jump in...

Okay, turn with me to Ephesians 2 {Page 869 in CITG bibles}(read and unpack “joy bits”)

My whole point is to bring you to a place of joy and I’m going to try to do that, not with my clever words. I’m not going to tell you some jokes, I’m not going to tell you a bunch of entertaining stories. I am going to try to show you over and over in the Scriptures that we have ample reasons to REJOICE, to respond in joy to the LORD.

Let’s go…
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14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
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Okay now turn back to Luke 10:17-20 (page 773) {give background, talk briefly about who the 72 were and what they had been sent out to do.}
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Okay, now go to John 10:27-30 (page 799)
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All right, that was all introduction. Now for the meat. Turn to Philippians 3.
Friends, I know we usually take a verse or two at a time, but there is no good way to cut this one up. It is one complete thought and, at least on our first pass, I could not bring myself to cut it up. So let’s dig in.

Read it with me.

REJOICE IN THE LORD! That's the point, people. That's why we're here tonight, that's why we are here on earth! That's one of the KEY REASONS We WERE CREATED!
To REJOICE IN THE LORD!
Find Your JOY in the LORD! I had to cut so many texts from this sermon. Over and over and over we are told to rejoice and over and over we are given this multitude of reasons why.
Again for the sake of time, we have to stay in Philippians 3, but when you get home look up Psalm 16:5-11; Psalm 144:15; and Isaiah 12:2, they are beautiful.
Now back to Philippians 3:2 Paul said rejoice and then we'll see him tie in some of the other things we've already read tonight from other passages.

First rejoice, but watch out for those who might take your joy away.

Paul's warning here against the Judaizers and other people who had come behind him into other cities where he had planted churches and they tried to lock new converts into the old Jewish laws that had been completed in Christ, It's what we just read about in Ephesians 2:12-15:
Paul had to preach on this a lot because a lot of people missed the point. The point that all of the ceremonial laws were fulfilled in Christ. The sacrifices of old were all pointing to Him to Jesus and His ultimate sacrifice on the cross. So there was now no need for the observance of the old laws.

In the same way, if you have been kicking the tires of Christianity and someone has been talking it up by telling you all the things that you need to do or all the things you need to stop, then let me clear it all up.
You and I are called to turn from sin and turn to God, that is to REPENT.

But that’s not the over arching theme of the Bible. The ultimate message is to TRUST in JESUS for the salvation of your soul. Then, through faith the Holy spirit will place a desire to repent and obey God’s design for your life.

If someone has been trying to tell you to clean up before you come to faith then tell them to get lost. All the cleaning up and behavior modification that you do is useless if your not in Christ yet.

Without Christ, at best, you are just going to be a very moral hell-bound sinner.

But when you START with faith and dependence on Christ to be your savior and believe that He has paid the price for your sins, then you are no longer hell-bound, you are a saint! Saved by grace and being purified by the word, and the Spirit and the loving help of the body of Christ, the Church.

Paul continues on this in Philippians 3:
We who? Who's Paul talking about?
Now Paul's going to put away any notion that we should be finding our main source of joy in anything that we do, or accomplish or even how much we know or how well we behave. He's going to SMASH that kind of thinking.

Rubbish is a very tame translation. The Greek is “skybalon” (skoobalon): the excrement of animals, offscourings, rubbish, dregs
In the King James it's dung. In The Message it is dog dung.

A side note here: Paul is preaching against the Judaizers and this can apply to us as well in the church when we begin to look at ourselves as holier than others because we are beginning to show the signs of a transformed and regenerate heart. Or when we start to say it takes Christ's saving work on the cross and... (Fill in your own blank).
Remember, the Bible is clear, It is by faith that you, you, you, I, WE have been saved. It is by faith and not of our works so that we cannot boast.

Now, will there be evidences of our faith? Absolutely! Do believers walk out their faith and go public with their faith in ways prescribed by the Scriptures? YES!

But salvation, what happens at the start that seals us and changes us instantly from the enemies of God into the children of God is that faith in the Cross. Jesus did it all! Nothing in our hands we bring, ONLY TO THE CROSS WE CLING.
Are we all tracking with that?
It is by faith alone in Christ alone and that is from the grace of God alone. No works of the hand, no works of the flesh, NONE are required for salvation. Please don't miss that. The Bible is clear and we want to be equally clear. Faith in Christ is what saves you.

That's the end of my rant. Paul continues.
After saying he thinks of all his “good” deeds and his pedigree as garbage, as dung.
After that he continues that all he wants to know, the thing that he rejoices in is not in his own works it is in Jesus and not only in the idea of Jesus, but the joy of sharing in the perfection at the resurrection. He says:
We've hit the text of verses 12-14 so many times, I was talking about tattoos the other day and said if I ever got one, I'd probably get a scripture passage. Philippians 3:12-14 would be a good one.

Let me reiterate. We are not perfect, but instead of using that as an excuse, what do we do, we see the perfection as the goal of our lives as the shared destination that we all have in Christ. We see the perfection and Christ-likeness and we know that THAT is what we are co-laboring with the Holy Spirit to achieve.

And with that goal in mind, we shed all of the extra weight of sin and all the distractions of this world that slow us down in our marathon race to the finish.
Moving on...

In other words, don't get sidetracked on side issues that are not key to the core of our faith. Don't argue in circles, stay in the Gospel. And read the Scriptures and through the Word and through the Holy Spirit, God will continue to reveal to us where we are off track and where we need to reform our thinking.

But, Paul says in verse 16, let us live up to what we have already attained, that is, our saving faith in Christ and our pursuit of the holiness He has called us to in response to His love and grace filled gift.

Now for the hard bit of rejoicing that we don't like to talk about...
{That takes us back to the piece about finding Godly role models. We talked about that last week. Now Paul’s going to warn against un-godly role models.}

Paul ends the chapter by reminding us that we are to rejoice because for whatever reason, God saved us from a destination that not all people will inherit. It's the reminder of

John 10:27-28 (page 799)

Which we said we can rejoice over. But remember that is because We are the Sheep!

And Jesus says it even clearer in John 6:44

We rejoice because, for no merit of our own, only the sovereign choice of God, we have been brought into new life and as Jesus says will be raised up on the last day.

Jesus says, that's a guarantee!

But don't you take this for granted! Rejoice and be filled with wonder and be filled with gratitude, because not everyone will come to Jesus, only those the Father draws in.

One more thing. Then we're done. Turn to Job 1:21
You know the story, Job was rich and successful and had a good reputation and a great family and good health and in all of that Job praised God.

So, Satan said to God, He wouldn't be so quick to REJOICE IN THE LORD if he didn't have it so good.

And so God said go ahead and do your worst, but don't kill him. We'll see.

And so Satan took everything, EVERYTHING except Job's life.
He took his health, wealth, reputation, killed his children!

And then Satan sends in Job's well meaning, and stupid friends who tried to comfort Job but ended up telling him that all this death and destruction came about because of some secret sin in Job's life... Satan just sacked him.

And what was Job's reaction in Job 1:21-22, after he had just lost everything and learned of his children's deaths?

Job said: 


If you are blessed with it all tonight, great relationships, good health, a job, money in the bank, common sense, etc.

Then by all means praise God for that. If He has transformed your heart to the point in which you live a righteous life and feel guilt and quickly repent when you stray from His will. Again Praise God. You are being that role model that I called you to be last week.

But, more than anything more than your stuff, your behavior, your station in life – More than rejoicing in what Jesus can give you – I'm begging you and the Scriptures in Philippians 3:1 command you to REJOICE IN THE LORD! Rejoice in who He is.

Bask in the light of His glory. Anticipate, not the streets of gold or the eternity without pain, anticipate being in His presence on that day when we are no longer hindered by our own sin.

Let's pray...
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