sermon notes (rough draft) for 8-17-08

Series: Immitate Christ Topic: Joy Scripture: Philippians 4:10-19

Nehemiah 8:10 says, “...the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

Do you have that Joy today? That’s what we are going to be seeking.

We can all experience the Joy of God in a greater way if we will apply these models to our lives.

This morning, I would like to share with you all a passage that really took hold of me when I was about 14 years old, and it never let go.

Philippians 4:11b – 13 “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

(#1) Paul here is a model of what it is to rely on God for his strength. How many of us can relate to what he says here. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty.

I do. I’m 33 years old. I don’t remember the 70’s more that an image here or there. But I do remember the 80’s. In 1982, I was 7 years old. My Daddy was a farmer in a little town called North Middletown, KY. We lived in a great big house. And my family had a lot of money. At that point in life the only reason to do without, was because my Mom didn’t want to drive into town to get whatever it was. But it was that same year that all that changed. I remember the conversations and the tension that went on. But I didn’t know what it ment that the Bank was calling the note due, nor did I know what Bankrupsy was. But they kept telling me we would have to move. That was ok w/ me. Just a different location I thought. To settle all that out took about 3 years. And in 1985, we moved to Winchester. Oh wow, we were going to live in the city. COOL!. Friends, stores, paved roads. Just awesome. But I was a heafty little boy. I mean, I could eat. We went from having a wide aray of food on that big farm opperation to having Brown beans every night. Now, I like brown beans as much as any contry boy would. But when the idea of daily variety consisted of “Son, would you like white bread, or crackers with your beans tonight?” It did get a bit worn out.

-But I was learning a lesson at that point. I was learning what it meant to live in plenty and in want.
-The model that Paul sets here says that he had edured hard times, and enjoyed some good times. But thru it all, the secret to that happiness has been Jesus.
-His faith in Christ has enabled him to edure.
-His faith in Christ has enabled him to stay focussed.
-His faith in Christ has enabled him to enjoy the life set before him through all the experiances life throws his way.
-Paul exhibits the true understanding of faith in God. That we do not exhit our faith by getting from God what we want. But rather our faith is exhibited by accepting from God what he gives.

Examine your own life. Are you content whatever the circumstances? It is a hard thing. I struggle with it even to this day, even with the experiances that God has allowed to come my way.
You can not experience joy without contentment. But you will experiance the joy of the Lord by accepting whatever God gives through faith that he will use it for the good in every situation.

Well, Bob, you may say, this speaks of contentment, but you said we’d have the model for joy in our lives. Where is the rest. Well, lets keep reading in our passage here and see what we find. Continuing on in Philippians 4, this time vv. 14-19.

(#2) Here is the another model that we have to pay attention to. Paul was encouraging the Philippians. Where was Paul when he was writing this letter? He was in prison in Rome.
-Paul was spending his time encouraging others, while his own circumstances were miserable.
-Paul took joy in the fact that he was also counted worthy to suffer on account of his faith in Jesus and he took joy in watching God work through his own situation as well as that of the Philippians.
-In other words Paul found his Joy in the workings of God through him and thouse around him.
-Two points that we can learn from there.
-The first, Do we put effort into really encouraging others at every chance we get? That doesn’t mean that we refuse to tell them the truth if they are messing up.
-But it does mean that if you see someone struggling with something, -- do you offer an encouraging hand, or an encouraging word, or do you just look at them and say, well what’s wrong with you? You should be able to handle that.

Those aren’t the kinds of comments that help. They are destructive.

Here in his letter to the Philippians, Paul, in jail, took the time to encourage those who were meeting at teh church in Philipi.

Do you encourage others, even when you are in a difficult circumstance. The model we see here says we should.

The second lesson here, Do we enjoy seeing God work through us and arround us?

You know, first things first. you can not see God at work in your life, or anywhere else if you aren’t looking. If you close your eyes to the movement of God, then I promise you, you won’t see it.

But if you would open those spiritual eyes and look at what we see here, a man relishing the success and glory that God is recieving and pouring out, then you will be full of the Joy of the Lord because you’ll begin to see God work in, around and thru you in a supernatural way.

So we can experiance the joy of the Lord by encouraging others and watching God at work.

(#3) The final model that we are going to look at here springs from the final verse that we read. v. 19, “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
-That is Pauls faith coming through even in prison.
-We have been looking for joy in this passage.
-In real life, when would we say something like this. We may say it when we are down and trying to encourage someone else. But I think that most of us, myself included, would be more likely to say this in a moment of excitement, in a moment of joy.
-Paul is wrapping up his letter to the Philippians, and he is trying to convey how happy he is with what the Philippians are doing.
-The statement here may sound like a promise of provision, possibly given to a people who were struggling financially. But I doubt that because Paul usually paid his own way. He was a tentmaker, and usually did not accept gifts. But he does from this church. So that tells me that Paul evaluated the situation and determined that the Philippians could bear the burden to help finance the ministry accross Israel, Asia, and Europe.
-So that leads us to conclude that this statement is a word spoken out of exuberance, and confidence that regaurdless of what the Philippians would ever give, they could not out give God.
-And so we see the model come into modern terms... We can not out give God in any way, be it time, money, property, or posession. Regardless of what we give, God can give more, and will meet every need we have. The question for us is will we trust him.

To conclude here, I’d like to tell you the story of a man who gave to God what he could out of his joy for the Lord.

I told you at the begining of the service that this passage took hold of me when I was 14. A young man at the church I was going to took an intrest in me. I was 14 and he was about 20, long curly blond hair, had his own car, and a girlfriend... I thought he was cool.

He was always kind to me, but I thought he was just bing nice, after all, he was my sunday school teacher. I thought it was his job to act like he liked me.

But he had a passion for God. He wanted us boys to know God and to love God and to trust God. He knew that Jesus Christ had died on the cross to save him and all of us. And he wanted to convey that to us.
Oh he had such passion. He had the joy of the Lord. And that was his strength. He was my teacher for one year. And in that year, I can’t tell you what the sunday school lessons were. But I can tell you that his passion for God made a tremendous impression on me.

Then the end of the year came, and he told us that he would not be remaining as our teacher. I was dissapointed, as were the others. We asked why, and all he would say was that he was just going to have to give it up.

The last Sunday he was there, it was in August, when Sunday School graduation was taking place, he came to me with a gift. He said that he had forgotten to get me a Christmas present, and that I had meant alot to him. I really to this day don’t know what I did for him. But I opened up the gift. And in it was a Bible. And on the inside cover, he had written a note, and he had signed it.... Then there was a note which simply read, Philippians 4:13.
I can do everything through him who gives me strength. That is what he wanted me to remember when he gave me this Bible. It has been with me eversince.

Do we live like we believe this?
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.....

Or do we allow the distractions and circumstances of life to convince us that we can do nothing about our situation or about advancing the cause of Jesus Christ.

Do we think, wow, there are people out there who need help. But what can I do? I don’t have the ability to help them.

That is a form of disbelief and rebelion. We are called to trust him. Paul, from prison would write letters to the churches to encourage them. WOW! He would wrestle with the Roman prison system for years before finally being executed for his faith in Jesus Christ. And we think we can’t do anything because of the obstacles we have.

All Paul did was write letters. Some of them are inerrently inspired by God and considered worthy of scriputre.

My point is this. I don’t know what God has laid on your heart. But I do know that as long as you are still hear on this earth, that he has a purpose for you. And if he has a purpose for you, then we can be sure that he will equip us for it.

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strenght. Act and live in faith, that is your charge.

sermon notes (rough draft) for 8-10-08

Series: Immitate Christ Topic: Love Scripture: John 13:34-35

I have been reading a book lately called “Unchristian”. I really didn’t like the book at first, but now that I am getting into it, I am taken by the observations of the writers. The purpose of the book is not to promote an unchristian point of view, quite the contrary. The point of the book is infact to better equip the church with information about how the poeple in the world who are not church goers view those of us who do go to church. Sometimes the observations are almost offensive, but I have to remind myself that if the comments I am reading accuratly portray what the average person outside of the church thinks, then we have to be aware of that and we have some things to address.

-- sight statistics from book... (I don't have permission to republish these, so you'll just have to email me with questions, or get a copy of the book and see, but in short, we as church people are often viewed as hypocrytical and judgmental amoung young people.)

--Pray, Oh God, help up us to see the truth, and to act accordingly. We know that we often don’t live according to how you would have us to. Change our hearts and our minds and give us the wisdom to know what we need to do. Give us the eyes to honestly see ourselves and to recognize the parts of us that do not reflect who you are. Help us to change, and Become more like your Son, Jesus. We pray in his name, Amen.

What can we garner from this data? I can see many things that we need to address just from this, and the research goes much deeper than just what I have sared with you. But if we are going to be relevant in this changing world, we have to actually build from the ground up, and start adjusting our behaviors to more closely come in line to that of Jesus.
If you are sitting there thinking, well this is a waist, I already have my foundation. I’m a mature Christian, I’ve been at this long enough to know. Then, you may very well be part of the problem. I advise you to do what Peter says, and work out your salvation with fear and trembling. In this case it means, be careful that you have built on the truth. You can label your life in anyway that you want, but we have to be sure to evaluate ourselves in a truthful manner, in other words we don’t want to lie to ourselves.

Now with all that said, I want us to honestly evaluate the question, Do we truely try to immulate Christ? Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at some of his virtues. Today, we are looking at the baseline. Love.

We have sang of his love today, and many of us have verses that speak of his Love memorized. (John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not parish, but have everlasting life.)

Our verse that we will focus on today is another verse on his love. But it also speaks of our love.
Lets read it. John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The Goal here today is to learn to show that Love that Jesus commands us to have. Or at least recognize what areas we need to work on to better represent God in our lives, and have peace in our hearts when we lay down at night.

I think we can all learn how to better show the love of Christ by watching for some of these habbits in our life and working to overcome them.

Listen closely, because some of these hurt, I know they did me....

Habbit #1. We say, “I’ll forgive them, but I won’t forget.”
-- Is that the kind of forgiveness we want from our Lord and savior. (Imagine, one day we’ve been in heaven for a couple thousand years one afternoon, and Jesus looks over and said, remember that time that you stole that money from that guy? -or- A person walks by on one of the streets of gold, and the Lord says, hey, remember that time you were lusting after that person back on earth....) That is not the kind of forgiveness that we are seeking, nor is it the kind that we are asked to give.
-In Psalm 103, we see the explanation that God removes our sins from us as far as the East is from the West.
n The problem is that we actually think that that is how we should deel with one another. -- We tell people that we forgive them, then we take action against them. That is not forgiveness. That is the very reason we have the reputation of hypocrisy.
n If we are to truely love and forgive people, we must unconditionally forgive them. (and sometimes that calls for a painful or sacrificial act on our part.)

Habbit #2. We say, “It’s not personal, It’s business.”
n We often use this line as a way to sperate our feelings or morality with what we are actually going to do. If this line creeps into your vocabulary, then watch out. What is happening, is you are compartmentalizing your life. And you are basically saying that there are parts of your life that God is not in. Specifically the business part.
o The story of Joseph, found in the book of Genesis, tells us how He included God in every area of his life. And God continually blessed his life and protected him. That did not stop bad things from happening to Joseph, but he was blessed beyond measure in this life.
§ So, that is not a story of name it and claim it, but it is an example how a man can live in a right way and still be successfull in the business world, even in a land that rejects your faith.

Habbit #3. The attitude, “Well he started it.”
This last one, we think is restricted to small children. Nothing could be further from the truth. We don’t come out and say it so much anymore. But this attitude is one of the most prevelent among all people of all age groups.

I have not done much marriage counsilling. Probably about 4 or 5 couples total. But one thing I noticed in the cases where the two just could not get along was this attitude. Now it sounded more mature when it was presented. But what it came down to was the wife wasn’t going to start talking nicely to the husband until he appologized for all these years of making fun of her. Or all the times he’s dismissed her in conversation. But when you turn around and talk to the husband, he denies viamently that he needs to appologize, but rather feels that she should appologize for her dismissals of his ideas, and what he percieves as her ignoring him.
So you see, neither is willing to appologize until the other does, because deep down they feel it is the other ones, fault. i.e “HE/SHE started it.” And it goes on for years.

n What do you think? Do you ever find yourself in those positions?
n Do you even remember what first started those feelings of resentment, or anger? Most people can not even trace it back to the true begining. They just can’t remember it.
o Now if you can, ok, but that doesn’t change the goal. Whether you remember it spacifically or not, the trick is not remembering how it got started, but rather committing to how we are going to end it.

Back in our passage we are focussing on today, John 13:34. In it Jesus says, as I have loved you, so you must love one another.

--How are you doing with that so far?
--Truth is that I had a hard time thru those habbits that we talked about, and that list is far from exaustive. They are just a few examples of how we word things and justifiy our actions to act one way, and believe something different about ourselves.

Jesus charges us to love each other as He loved us. That is a tall order.
He left heaven for us.
He gave up a crown of Gold for the crown of thorns.
He left the praises of angels for the curses of men.
He left the thrown for the cross.

Tell me, the last person you got upset with, did you stop to consider that you are called to love them the same way Jesus loves them. Or were you to occupied with getting even, or making sure your voice was heard?

Some may say, yeah, but even Jesus confronted folks. You know who he confronted? He confronted the religious people of the day. Jesus confronted peopel for Hypocrisy. You can read all the stories of Jesus and his confrontations, and in each case, the bottom line is he was confronting the misuse of scripture, position, or power. He was confronting Hyporcrisy. And in many ways, he was confronting people like us.

What hope do we have to truely overcome this reputation, and for that matter, what hope do we have to truely overcome the actions that leed us there?

The answer is Love. We have to truely develope the love of Jesus inside each of us. It’s hard to pretend to love someone. Impossible really for any length of time. But if we can allow God to work in our lives to grow the love that Jesus charges us to have, then we have a hope.

I recomend writing down this scripture reference and working on memorizing it. It is another passage on love, but it will help us to live what we have claimed.

I John 4:10-12 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

You see, it is God’s grace that enables us to forgive people who have hurt us. It is Gods grace that enables us to rejoice when good things happen to other people instead of us. It is God’s grace that enables us to give up what we want for the sake of others.

That is what we want to do. In our love for others, we want to forgive unconditionally. We want to celebrate for other people when good things happen to them, regardless of what the circumstances in our life bring. And we want to have the grace to choose to give of ourselves for the well being of others.

This is the kind of love that Jesus gives us. Romans 5:8 says that. it says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

What that means is before we came to him to appologize for what we had done wrong, he took the steps to forgive us, and to show us that he loves us.

He’s not like that couple who kept waiting for the other one to appologize before they would change their behavior toward one another. No, he took the step toward you, and is reaching out his hand asking you to come to him as well. And asking us to do the same toward one another.

Will you come? Will you live like that?

A personal way of understanding John 3:16, God loved YOU so much that he gave Jesus, his only son, that if YOU will believe in him, YOU will not die, but have eternal life.

Will you do that today?

If you would like to establish that relationship with Jesus, and know that you will live with him through all eternity, then here in a min, you come forward while we sing this last song. If you have already done that and you want to follow the Lord in baptism, you come forward as we sing, and we’ll lead you down that road as far as you want to go.

I know that sometimes, people wonder, what kind of prayer is it that people pray to accept Jesus, is it a secret until you go see the preacher.... No, there are no secrets. The prayer is simple, it goes something like this. You pray it with me if you want....
Oh God, I know that I am a sinner. That I have done wrong things in my life. I ask you to forgive me of what I have done wrong. And I recieve your Son, Jesus Christ as my savior. I believe he lived and died to pay for my wrongs, and that he rose again. I want to live my life for Him. I pray this in Jesus name, amen.