Sermon Central
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Studies In Philippians
Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 1, 2021 (message contributor)
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1. Incurable Optimism
Contributed on Apr 1, 2021
This optimistic letter has been used of God to comfort, encourage, and challenge Christians all through history to be optimists in a fallen world.
The things that can go wrong in Christian service could fill an encyclopedia. Tal Bonham has recorded just a few. A note in the bulletin said, "Ladies don't forget the rummage sale. It is a good chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your ...read more
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2. Joyful Saints
Contributed on Apr 1, 2021
A saint is not determined by what they are, but by where they are. If they are in Christ, that is the bottom line. The degree of holiness varies tremendously, but all who are in Christ are equally saints.
Roger Fredricksen, a well-known pastor in my hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, wrote a book titled God Loves The Dandelions. In it he tells of how he and his wife Ruth were at a small cabin on the lake in Minnesota. They had just finished reading the book of Philippians with all its powerful ...read more
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3. Educated Love
Contributed on Apr 1, 2021
Paul is not knocking the love of the Philippians. Kindergarten love is not bad, but it is no place to level off and be content. A child who does not progress beyond kindergarten is greatly handicapped, and so is the Christian whose love does not abound more and more in knowledge.
The best of Christians make their share of mistakes, but John Turner was apparently trying to get a large portion of his quota of mistakes out of the way all in one day. John was a conscientious pastor who got to his church early one Sunday morning, and he discovered that he had left his sermon ...read more
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4. Envious Christians
Contributed on Apr 1, 2021
This sin of envy is capable of any evil, even to the point of killing the Son of God to eliminate Him from the competition. We live in a dangerous world because of the potential of this sin. Paul lists it with the worst sins of depravity
We seldom get the whole story on anything. No doubt, most of us are aware of how the rocks brought back from the moon were kept in isolation for some time less the contain some organism that could spread disease for which we have no defense. That made a lot of sense, and made everyone feel more ...read more
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5. Good Out Of Evil
Contributed on Apr 1, 2021
Paul never dreamed that his days in prison would be days God would use him to let his light shine through all of history because of the epistles he would write there. We should pray, "Lord this is a bad day I am having, what good can you help me make of it for your glory?"
Luther Burbank, the world famous scientist, worked for years to try and develop a black-petaled lily. He had several thousand experimental lily plants in his laboratory. A sudden cloudburst let loose a flood of rain that they were all washed away. William Stidger tells of sympathizing with him ...read more
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6. Fanatic For Jesus
Contributed on Apr 1, 2021
Paul's point is that when your life is devoted to the highest you can't lose, for even if you die it is not loss, but gain. Fanaticism for Christ is the only perfect fanaticism, for it is the only fanaticism that is a no lose situation.
In Tiger Of The Snows Tenzig Norgay is a fanatic for mountain climbing. He and a British companion were going to climb Mt. Everest. His wife did not share his enthusiasm, and she felt he was obsessed. "You are a dare devil," she said, "And you care nothing about what your death ...read more
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7. Courageous For Christ
Contributed on Apr 1, 2021
It is the awareness that we are in warfare that will bring out the courage of the Christian. It is because we sense no urgency, as those in battle, that we get complacent and indifferent, and feel no call to be bold for Christ.
Max Lucado in his book In The Eye Of The Storm tells the true story of poor Chippie. Chippie was a pet bird just peacefully perched in his cage when all of the sudden life was changed into a living nightmare. It all began when Chippie's owner decided to clean his cage with a vacuum cleaner. ...read more
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8. Partners With God
Contributed on Apr 1, 2021
Man tries to say there are saints and non-saints, but Paul says, all who are in Christ are saints. Man says, there are clergy and lay people. Paul says to the Philippians, you are partners with me in the Gospel.
Chuck Swindoll was told this true story of Joe Gibbs, head coach of the Washington Red Skins. Joe's friend Frank looked out the window one morning and there was his faithful Labrador Retriever sitting on the front porch with something hanging from the dog's jaws. A closer look revealed it ...read more
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9. The Prayer Of Thanksgiving
Contributed on Apr 1, 2021
Paul demonstrated the power of a thankful heart to overcome enormous negative circumstances. Prayer is not the dark garment of despair. Prayer is a bright garment of praise that will dress up the soul even on the dreariest of days.
My earliest childhood memories of being in church are of the rope that I could ride. The thick rope hung down through the ceiling in the church entry way. I was so little that when the rope was pulled to ring the bell in the belfry, I could hang on to it and get a ride as it would pull me up off ...read more
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10. The Sacrificial Perspective
Contributed on Apr 1, 2021
Selfishness does not care about the interests of others. It focuses on the self only. To give up this focus at all is to sacrifice some time, energy, thought, and possibly even some resources for the needs of others.
One of the major causes of human suffering is the fact that people see life from many different perspectives. While we were in Duluth we went to a park where we stood on a bridge and watched a bus load of junior boys and girls eat their lunch on the rocks below. A lovely stream flowed over the ...read more
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11. A Season To Be Selfless
Contributed on Apr 1, 2021
Selfishness is that sin we can hardly stand in others, or hardly see in ourselves. It is so hard to forgive in others, and so hard to forsake in ourselves.
On Dec. 7, 1682 the Great Law of Pennsylvania was passed which became the basis for governing the state for 94 years. It represented William Penn's ideal of a Christian state. It provided for religious freedom and the protection of individual rights. It provided for the care of poor and ...read more
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12. Recipe For A Merry Christmas
Contributed on Apr 2, 2021
If you really want to help others have a merry Christmas, let the Spirit of Christ be incarnated in your flesh, so that your life, acts, and words are used to encourage others.
Back in the 60's, a movie was made telling the story of a man, who, like Job, got so discouraged that he wished he had never been born. His guardian angel granted him his wish, and also the freedom to go back to his hometown to observe the consequences. Nobody knew him, of course, not even ...read more
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13. Encouragement Encourages Encouragers
Contributed on Apr 2, 2021
This word, paraklesis, is used 29 times in the New Testament. What we learn from a study of this word is that an encouraged Christian is a positive functioning member of the body, but that a discouraged Christian is a malfunctioning member of the body.
Admiral Richard Byrd, the famous polar explorer, had adventures of being lost and then found that are amazing. In his book Alone, he tells of being alone for six months in his little shack in 1934 living through a long Antartic winter. Every day he would take a walk, but he would take a bundle of ...read more
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14. The Problem And Solution
Contributed on Apr 2, 2021
Our Christian faith and values are always being flavored by the culture. It is so subtle that we do not even realize it, and that is why the Bible often has to be so radical to jar us awake to the fact that we are to be different from the world.
William Stidger, the great preacher, was in France during World War I, and he visited the city of Marseilles where he saw the aqueduct that all visitors are guided to see. The story of this source of water to the city goes back to the old man who became known as the miser of Marseilles. He walked ...read more
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15. The Power Of The Resurrection
Contributed on Apr 2, 2021
Never has a death sentence been reversed after it was already executed so that the condemned was restored to life. This was the most unique event in history, and the power of it was awesome, and it changes everything.
John Scott Harrison was the only man in the history of our nation who was the son of one president and the father of another. A man of such distinction you would think would be treated with great respect in his death, but the fact was, nobody was safe in 1878 when he died. Body snatching was at a ...read more
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16. A Future With Focus
Contributed on Apr 2, 2021
The key to happiness and success in the new year is to have a dream, and a goal to pursue. Without a dream or goal to motivate us we will just drift through the new year, and whatever we achieve will be a matter of chance and not design.
Vanna White, the glamorous star who turns the letter on Wheel Of Fortune, was a leader in her church youth group at North Myrtle Beach, North Carolina. Her pastor wrote about how he asked her, when she was a senior, what she was going to do after graduation. She responded that her dream was to ...read more
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17. The Greatest Education
Contributed on Apr 2, 2021
To know Him and the power of His resurrection was Paul's ambition, and is the ambition of all who really want the greatest education. It is the greatest for it is more comprehensive than the best liberal arts education if one pursues it.
G. A. Studdert-Kennedy wrote a poem called "Faith," which has become very widely quoted. Let me share the whole of it with you. "How do I know that God is good? I don't. I gamble like a man. I bet my life Upon one side in life's great war. I must. I can't stand out. ...read more
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18. Pressing On
Contributed on Apr 2, 2021
There is no point in forgetting the past and aiming toward the future if one does not do something in the present. Paul says with part of the track behind and part of the track ahead, I press on.
Well over a hundred years ago a young man ran for the legislature in Illinois, and he was badly defeated. He then entered business and failed, and he spent the next 17 years paying off the debts of a worthless partner. He fell in love with a beautiful girl and was engaged to be married. But she ...read more
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19. Givers By Choice
Contributed on Apr 2, 2021
Giving is one of the key ways to produce encouragement. Givers create grateful hearts, and the world can never have too many grateful hearts.
Winston Churchill use to love to tell the story about the family who were having a picnic by the lake, and the little boy fell into the water by accident. The family did not see it, but a stranger passing by saw the boy slip under the water, and fully clothed, he leaped into the lake and rescued ...read more