3 Things You Gotta Know If You Are Gonna Grow

3 Things You Gotta Know if You’re Gonna Grow

TURN IN YOUR BIBLE TO PHILIPPIANS 2. THIS MORNING WE ARE CONTINUING OUR STUDY THROUGH THE BOOK OF PHILIPPIANS.

How many of you are WWE fans?

You are NOT the Star of the Show!

ARE THERE ANY WWE FANS IN HERE THIS MORNING?

A FEW YEARS AGO, MY FAMILY AND I WENT TO THE BLAISDEL ARENA TO WATCH THE WWE – HHH, JOHN CENA, SHAWN MICHAELS.

STORY OF TY CARRYING SIGN “I LOVE SHAWN MICHAELS!”

I’m a longtime fan of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and of professional wrestling. On WWE’s Monday Night Raw, a lot of fans like to make signs to show off during the live broadcast of the show. One of the things I’ve seen a few fans do for kicks is write their own name on a sign so they can try and get their name and face on national television.

I suppose if you could get a family member to tape the show, it would be a kick to see yourself holding up a sign with your own name on a nationally televised program. “Hey, you see that small blue smudge on the bottom left part of the television screen jumping up and down? That’s me! That’s me! Don’t you see the sign?” Maybe your mom and best friend would be impressed when you tell them about your national television debut.

What if you decided to take your newfound fame to another level? Because you are so proud of your nationally televised debut appearance, you decide to rent out movie theaters across the country to plaster this spectacular event on the big screen. You spare no expense and even get it released in high definition digital 3-D! Because you are so proud of this event, you invite all of your friends, family, and adoring fans to come and see your big screen debut. Now you have assured that all of your adoring fans could see your WWE premier!

What do you think the reaction of your friends and family would be? Would they support you? Would they pay the money to come to your debut? Do you think they’d ask for your autograph or melt in your presence? I doubt it. I think they might conclude you had gone off the deep end! They’d think you’ve become delusional and have gone completely bonkers! They’d remind you that the main story in the WWE is not about you! You are not the featured event on Monday Night Raw! You’re not the star of Wrestlemania! You’re not the WWE champion! You’re just a little passing smudge that pops up on the bottom of the tv screen for a grand total of a half second! Get over yourself! You’re not the main character! It’s not about you and it’s not your story!

While this example sounds ridiculous, I wonder if that is how we live our lives. I fear that far too many well intentioned Jesus followers think that life is all about how God intersects into their story, when they should instead be considering how they fit into God’s story.

We think that in our lives, we are the stars and we are on center-stage … and God is a great supporting cast member. We think the lives we live revolve around our own story and agenda, and we try to discover how God fits into it. A great tragedy of our time might just be that an overwhelming number of people who claim to be followers of Jesus have settled for being consumers who still live for themselves … in Jesus’ name.

IN THE BOOK OF PHILIPPIANS – PAUL SPENDS TIME ENCOURAGING THE BELEIVERS IN PHILIPPI IN THE FACE OF PERSECUTION – HE ENCOURAGES THEM TO HAVE JOY BY REMINDING THEM TO PLACE THE FOCUS ON JESUS CHRIST AND PURSUE THE POWER OF JESUS – OVER THEIR OWN CIRCUMSTANCES. OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS WITH PASTOR JOHN, WE’VE SEEN PAUL AFFIRM THE PHILIPPIANS OF HIS AFFECTION OF THEM AND CHALLENGES THEM TO ALTER THEIR PERPECTIVE .

Philippians is the epistle of joy and encouragement in the midst of adverse circumstances. Paul freely expresses his fond affection for the Philippians, appreciates their consistent testimony and support, and lovingly urges them to center their actions and thoughts on the pursuit of the power of Christ. Paul also seeks to correct the problems of disunity and rivalry (2:2-4) and to prevent the problems of legalism and antinomianism (3:1-19). Philippians focuses on: Paul's account of his present circumstances (1); Paul's appeal to have the mind of Christ (2); Paul's appeal to have the knowledge of Christ (3); Paul's appeal to have the peace of Christ (4).

Stump the Fishing Guy

“Stump The Fishing Guy.” That was the challenge we read while we were walking in the mall. A long line of kids were waiting to try to “stump the Fishing Guy.”