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Philippians – Paul’s letter of Joy – Philippians 3:15-21 – Sermon February 24, 2019

Click on the link above to see the video of the message.

Philippians 3:15-21

 The Apostle Paul often refers to the Christian life as a race and the Bible is full of stories of men and women of God, who began the race well, but failed in the end because they disregarded God’s rules for the race (see 2 Timothy 2:5). As a Christian if you don’t follow the rules, you don’t lose your salvation, but you miss out on the rewards (see 1 Corinthians 3:14-15).

In 2 Corinthians 5:10, we read that every believer must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and we will be called to give an account for how we made use of our spiritual gifts and the calling of God on our lives.

Paul writes in verse 15, “Let those of us who are mature think this way…”

Spiritual maturity is not perfection, but it is daily making progress towards holiness and purity in our lives. The plan for our lives this side of heaven is progress not perfection.

Paul continues in verse 15, “Only let us hold true to what we have attained.”

The Christian life must be one of consistency, holding on to the ground that has already been taken as we grow in the Lord.

There are two primary reasons why people do not grow and mature in their walk with the Lord.

  1. They assume they are already mature.  A person who makes a decision for Christ is not mature, they are spiritual infants. In this life spiritual maturity is a journey and not a destination.
  2. They are not willing to pay the price for maturity. Maturity comes at a cost. We must give up things that hold us back. There is pain involved in growth and we naturally shy away from pain. James 1:1-4 explains the common process of spiritual growth.

To mature as a Christian, we need role models, mature Christians who have walked the road ahead of us, that we can look to for inspiration and encouragement.  Paul writes in verse 17 that the Philippian Christians should imitate him as an example. As Christians our life is what other people scrutinize. What kind of role-model are you for a younger Christian?

If that sounds intimidating, we need to be reminded that this is the design that God has for the church.

But then in verse 18 and 19 Paul describes a group of people that we should not follow as role-models. These people were in the church, members of the church in Philippi. This is why he says that he is writing with tears, it grieves him.

Paul says that these professing Christians are actually enemies of the cross, and he lists 4 rebukes against these people:

  1. “Their end is destruction” – These people are playing at being Christians, but they are wasting their lives.
  2. “their god is their belly” – They are driven by sensual appetites, this doesn’t mean that they are all gluttons, rather they run after every desire they have without self-control. Living for the moment and they have no concern for their eternal destination.
  3. “They glory in their shame” – People give themselves over to their passions and their appetites and then try to find a way to justify their actions, even declaring that what they are doing is right and good. God’s standard never changes, but the world and sadly many churches today have so embraced sin, even celebrating sin, “They glory in their shame”.
  4. “with minds set on earthly things “– Much like the modern Western church, we are programmed by materialism and the present world full of entertainment. One of my goals is to have an eternal perspective on everything and one of the goals of my ministry is to convey that passion to others.

Can you imagine the impact a church could have on the world if we saw everything we did and every dollar we spent through the lens of eternity?

Paul picks up that theme in verses 20 and 21: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

As Christians, we are under the rule and the authority of the kingdom of heaven. The people of Philippi grasped this easily, because even though they lived in Greece, they were under Roman rule. They submitted themselves to the higher authority of Rome. While we are here on the earth, living in the United States of America, we are subject to the laws of the land where we live. But these laws are temporary, this land is temporary, but our citizenship in the kingdom of God is eternal. So, while we adhere to the laws of the land, where those laws conflict with the laws of the eternal kingdom we must submit to the higher authority.

Paul has an eager expectation of Jesus coming again, this is what it means to have an eternal perspective. Our residence here is temporary, the things we spend most of our time stressing about are temporary (see 2 Corinthians 4:18).

Everything we have is temporary, but what will endure is the lasting effects of a life lived for Jesus, how you spend your time, how you spend your money will determine the eternal rewards that Jesus has in store for you. Are you living with an eternal perspective?

Are you living as a true follower of Jesus?

Are you a citizen of heaven or are you an enemy of the cross?

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Sermon July 22, 2018 – Lessons from the life of Gideon part 4

Judges 7:1-23

Have you ever been in a situation where you faced insurmountable odds? Maybe a financial situation where there seemed to be no way out, or a health scare when the doctors told you that you, or someone you love, has less than ten percent chance of survival. Maybe you have a work deadline that seems impossible to meet.

How do you respond when the chances of success or even survival seem impossible? Maybe you are in that place right now, and you are here simply hoping to get through another day.

In Judges 7, we see that Gideon was in a desperate situation. In the previous chapter we see that Gideon is filled with the power of the living God, and he blows the trumpet calling the men of his clan to battle. As word goes out some 32,000 men from four tribes gather under Gideon’s leadership to fight against the invading Midianites. However, they were heavily outnumbered as the Midianites and the Amalekites numbered over 135,000. Even being this outnumbered, God said to Gideon that they were too many and he allowed those who were afraid to go home. At which point 22,000 soldiers leave, imagine how Gideon must have felt? 10,000 of the Israelite army remain, but God looks on the army and says to Gideon that he has still too many. God instructs Gideon to have the army go and drink some water, those who knelt down and scooped the water into their mouths were singled out from those who lay down and put their mouths directly to the water.

There are all kinds of theories of why God singled out those who kneeled, but the bottom line is that God singled out 300 men and told the rest to go home. Now everyone could see that this was an impossible task.

When you are facing an impossible situation, it just might be that God has orchestrated it to be that way, in order for His own glory. If there is even a possibility of us being able to save ourselves by our own ingenuity or skill, we will take the credit for ourselves. God loves to show His glory, but in order to do that, the situation has to be absolutely impossible.

God continues to speak to Gideon and tells him to go down to the camp of Midian and spy out what is going on. Gideon was clearly afraid, but he still had the courage to obey God.

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt

Gideon goes down to the enemy camp not knowing that God has prepared a blessing for him. God gave one of the enemy soldiers a dream about a cake of barley bread that came down the hill and destroyed the camp of Midian. Another soldier listening immediately interpreted the dream and recognized that the God of the Israelites had appointed Gideon to be the one to destroy the mighty Midianite army. It just so happened that as this conversation began, Gideon was right there to hear it. God orchestrates circumstances all the time, we just need to recognize the hand of God in the situation. Gideon immediately worshipped God. This was all he needed, going back to his base camp he began to give orders for battle.

What follows is one of the greatest victories in the history of warfare. Gideon divides the men into three camps and has them take a trumpet in the one hand, and a clay jar with a torch in the other, obviously leaving behind their sword and their shield, they were totally unarmed and unprotected.

Gideon knew that this was going to either be a complete slaughter or a mighty miracle, he had faith for the miracle and did what was absolutely reckless. From the observer’s perspective, this was a suicide mission, the soldiers were totally unarmed and spread out around the enemy. They were not hiding in the tall grass, rather, they were standing tall, and at the call of Gideon they would blow their trumpets, calling attention to themselves and then if that wasn’t enough, they were to smash the jars and reveal the torches. Completely exposing themselves to the enemy. It was reckless and certain suicide.

We know what happened next, the men do as Gideon showed them to do and shout, “the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” The shout was to identify that God was wielding the sword, but also that Gideon was God’s anointed man on the ground, the man of faith.

The battle begins and in verse 21 we read that Gideon’s men did not move, they simply stood in place holding the torches. They didn’t carry a sword, they didn’t strike the enemy, but they did what God told them to do.

Sometimes, we want to go and fight the enemy, attack the person who offended or belittled us, take legal action against the person who wronged us, but as we ask God, He may tell you and I to do something that makes no sense at the time. As Christians, we have to stop thinking as the world thinks, fighting for our rights and making sure we get revenge. But God’s way is quite often different, if we truly believe in the all-powerful God, who is actively involved in our daily lives, why would we do anything other than what He tells us to do (See Romans 12:19-21).

The Midianites fled in confusion with over 120,000 of them perishing mostly by their own swords. God won the victory and there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that this was an extraordinary miracle.

The challenge for us today is to grasp that this is not simply a cool motivational story, this actually happened, it is a true historical account in the nation of Israel. The same God who overwhelmingly defeated the Midianites is inviting you today to trust him to fight your battles.

We all have an enemy who wants to destroy our lives (see 1 Peter 5:8), but just like Gideon, the weapons of our warfare are unconventional (see 2 Corinthians 10:4).

In Ephesians 6, we have the armor of God and the only offensive weapon we have is the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. If you want to know why you aren’t seeing victory in your life, it is probably because you aren’t familiar with your sword. The reasons why so many of the churches in the world are struggling and lack power, it is because they have relied on human reasoning and tradition rather than the life-giving power and authority of the Word of God.

Just as God gave Gideon the victory, He can give you the victory, all because of what Jesus did on the cross for you.

What is the battle you are fighting today? Turn the battle over to God and let Him lead you into victory.