Doing It God's Way

Doing It God’s Way

11:00 1/10/93 Text Philip 2:12-17 Proverbs 16:1-9 Luke 18:18-30

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Some people live in a manner in which they do things their

own and the only time they even consider God is during a tragedy

or an emergency. The story is told of a farmer who had three

sons: Jim, John, and Sam. No one in the family ever attended

church or had time for God. The pastor and the others in the

church tried for years to interest the family in the things of

God to no avail. Then one day Sam was bitten by a rattlesnake.

The doctor was called, and he did all he could to help Sam, but

the outlook for Sam’s recovery was very dim indeed. The three men

decided now would be good time to call in the minister to pray.

The pastor was a man who did not mind speaking the truth. He

came and laid hands on Sam and began to pray, " Lord we thank you

that in your wisdom, you sent a rattlesnake to bite Sam. He has

never been inside the church, and it is unlikely that He ever

prayed or acknowledged your claim on His life. We pray that

this experience will be a valuable lesson to him and lead him to

genuine repentance. And now oh God, will You please send another

rattlesnake to bite Jim and John, and another really big one to

bite the old man. For years we have done everything we know how

to get them to turn to You, but it all failed. It seems that

what our combined efforts could not do, this rattlesnake has

done. So Lord, keep sending this family bigger and better rattle

snakes. Amen.

There is a lot of Jim, John, Sam and old man in us. We do

not even consider doing things God’s way, until some rattlesnake

comes and gives us a good bite and we can’t handle it by our

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The Bible says, there is a way that seems right to a person.

Just because it seems right, doesn’t mean it’s okay. God told

Moses to speak to the rock and water would come out. It seemed

okay Moses to strike the rock and water came out. But God told

Him, because of that Moses, you will never enter the promised

land. God told King Saul, to wait for Samuel to offer the sacri

fice on the altar. It seemed okay to the King to offer the sacri

fice himself since Samuel was late. He offered it. But God told

him, I have now rejected you from being King over my people. Many

people say, "well I serve God in my own way." There is a way

that seems right, but the Bible says at the end of every way is

death.

What seems right to us is not going to count for much. The

issue is what is it that God requires of us. The rich ruler in

our New Testament reading was a good, honest and upright young

man. He had high moral values, and it seemed to him that He was

pleasing in God’s sight and ready to go to heaven. But Jesus let

him know that, because he was not willing to live the way Jesus

wanted him to live, he could not be a part of the kingdom of God.

"I did it my way" may be a great title for a song, or a

book, but it’s not the way to live if we want to know the full

ness of life that Jesus wants us to have. Our desire as Chris

tians ought always to be, "I did it the way God wanted me to do

it." I guarantee you now, that if you do that, there’s going to

be a lot of times, you will not have done it your way.

We are going to continue to look at Philippians chapter 2 at

verse 12 & 13. The apostle Paul is writing to a small and struggling church in Philippi. Paul is currently confined to a Roman

prison and he’s not sure what the future may hold for his life or

his death. Whatever the future brings, it is Paul’s desire to

handle it in God’s way.

Verse 12 says Philippians 2:12 "Therefore, my dear friends,

as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much

more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear

and trembling,". One of the things you should notice is that the

Philippians were consistent Christians. They did what God wanted

them to do in the way God wanted whether the apostle Paul was

present or not.

Some of us are like little kids. As long as our parents