Honor God – He Will Honor You Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: August 5, 2011

Date Preached: August 7, 2011

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: A Series from Philippians

Sermon Title: Honor God – He Will Honor You

Sermon Text: Philippians 2:5-11 [ESV]

Introduction:

How many people here LOVE to BUY stuff or GET stuff as a gift? [ask for show of hands] It is great when we get stuff, but I find it even more thrilling when I buy something I have wanted… but what about when you buy something that needs assembling once you get it home?

Now let me ask… How many LOVE to get stuff you have to put together? [ask for a show of hands] Not as many as before I believe…

This past weekend we met at my mother N law’s house for our grandson’s 3rd birthday party and our niece’s college sendoff party! It was a great time and Michelle and I even brought a gift for her mother… a brand new grill.

Why would we buy her a new grill? Well when we go up there, I am usually the one who is asked to do the cooking and her old grill was worn out and I wanted something I was familiar with to grill on when I had to cook… SO… we bought the same grill (basically) that we have here at our house! Only the grill comes UNASSEMBLED…

We arrived there on Friday night and needless to say I spent MOST of Saturday morning putting that dad-gum grill together… SHEESH! I opened the box and goodness gracious at the parts and screws and bolts and all sorts of different things I had to put together… I was lost at where to start, I was lost at how to proceed, I had NO idea how I would get this thing put together… and then I looked at the instructions!

I looked at the instructions and they began to take me through the assembly step by step. Some of the directions did not seem logical to me and I wondered why I had to do this or do that… why do I put this together before that? But when I followed the instructions, after about 2 hours, there before me was the completed grill!

This week as I began to look at our Scripture, that event from this past weekend came to mind and I thought that it is a lot like what we deal with in our spiritual walk with Christ.

We receive this great and wonderful gift from God… it is something we LOVE and cherish, but when we go to OPEN it (so to speak) all the parts look unfamiliar and we wonder how they all fit together and how in the world are we going to put this life out there for the world to see… and it be functional and the way it is supposed to be!

Well the simple answer is that we DO have instructions for this wonderful gift of salvation that God has given to us…those instructions can be found in God’s Word… in the Bible! I have heard the Bible being described with an acronym B.I.B.L.E. which stands for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth! [show powerpoint slide here]

Just like many things we have to assemble after we receive them… the Christian life does NOT come fully assembled. God gives us salvation by way of His grace, love and mercy… but what God gives to us is not something we can open up and put into motion without effort on our part!

The GIFT of salvation is something we can NEVER earn or even deserve, but the living OUT of that gift is something we HAVE to work at every day, every hour, every minute of our Christian walk! But preacher HOW? How do we do that… if it does not come fully assembled, how can I put together a Christian life in which God will be pleased?

Well to do that, we must follow the instructions! The Bible is filled with great instructions for the believer and all we need to do is get into His word and God will provide us with what we need to live the life He desires… in our passage this morning Paul has just challenged the believers at Philippi to WALK the Talk and to live their Christian life OUT LOUD, even when there is adversity.

Paul uses these next few verses to reveal the most perfect example of living one’s life out loud for God and with this example comes instructions for the believer to help them to piece together their Christian life in order to walk worthy of the Savior they profess as Lord!

Let’s look at Phil 2:5-11 and see what Paul is saying…

Show verses 5-11 here…I will read