Chains
12 Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14 Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.
Turn to Phil. 1:12-14
Paul allowed the Lord to use his chains to further God’s kingdom.
Paul had his problems but in the process of accepting his situation he allowed the power of God to better the situation, not change it but better it, and through it all gained a godly perspective on what he was going through.
Read verses then pray.
Introduction
Helen Keller was 1 ½ years old when she became seriously ill, modern day drs feel she probably had scarlet fever or meningitis. Due to her illness she lost her sight and hearing. She became a blind, deaf, mute. People say she was out of control as a child. She threw constant temper fits, ate like a savage, terrorized the house by throwing things and screaming – her family thought she was a monster who needed to be institutionalized.
Helen’s mother – Kate – sought help for her daughter and ended up consulting Alexander Graham Bell for direction. We know Bell invented the telephone but he considered his true vocation to be teaching deaf children. Through Bell’s advice the Keller’s ended up hiring Anne Sullivan to be Helen’s teacher.
At the age of 6, Helen became Ms. Sullivan’s first student. Anne taught Helen how to finger spell but Helen had no idea what was happening. Yet, a month later the “miracle” occurred. Helen wrote of this moment later, “As someone was drawing water my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten, a thrill of returning thought, and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me.” She began to understand and she was able to learn at astonishing rates.
She became a reader, writer, author, famous worldwide and even won an Oscar in 1954. Against all odds, she learned to overcome debilitating circumstances.
"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved."
• The Apostle Paul’s chains were literal chains. He was chained to prison guards all day. Helen’s chains, like ours, have to do more with the difficulties and adversities we experience in life. Paul said, “I want you to know what has happened to me.”
• Can I get a little personal, what has happened to you? What has happened to you in your life? Do you have a horror story to tell? Were you abused? Do you struggle with the past, what others did to you or what you did to others? Do you have a hard time letting go? What memories plague you? What has your life been like? How do you feel right now, like a failure or an overcomer? Are you discouraged this morning? About ready to give up?
I. The Problems We Face
A. M. Scott Peck penned the very famous sentence in his book, The Road Less Traveled, “Life is difficult”. (Pause on that.) Peck tells us that This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.
B. The problems we face in our lives vary from person to person. One persons chains may be internal struggles, or a marriage, or a divorce, trouble with the kids, finances, work, relationships, health, mental health – depression, anxiety, fear, addictions, being raised in an alcoholic home (ACOA). Some problems are our own fault and others are not.
C. Paul’s adversity, his chains, his burden, his weight, his “Life is difficult” situation was being imprisoned for preaching the faith. Punished for doing the right thing. “This is the thanks I get God? This is how you treat those who love you whole-heartedly?”
D. We can get like that you know. We feel God owes us. He owes us big time. When things go well we’re happy when things start going sour we get angry. “God, how could you?”
E. A Puritan wrote “Let Wrath Deserved be written on the door of hell but the free gift of grace be written on the gate of heaven.” GOD OWES US NOTHING (I worked this a little bit when preaching.)God owes us nothing but yet gives us so much.
II. The Process We Go Through
A. “What has happened to me.” A lot of stuff goes on in our heads when we are going through a situation. You see, there’s a process we go through mentally, spiritually, physically when we’re faced with our chains. One of the hardest things to do is coming to a point where we accept the problem we’re facing.
B. We often don’t want to work through things. We just want a quick fix and deliverance. We rebuke it, resist it, run from it, partner up with another to do deliverance but the last thing we want to do is accept it.
Can you imagine Paul saying, “Chains, what chains, there are no chains, I’m not going to confess my chains, I have no chains.” It’s like the person who says he is healthy, not sick, I don’t have a cold, achoo achoo!
C. Denial is not just a river in Egypt, it’s an everyday part of our
lives. Couples on the brink of divorce say “Things aren’t that
bad” The person struggling with addiction, “I can stop anytime
or I’ll never do that again.” The depressed person says, I’ll get
over it, it’s not that bad. The person in debt says, What debt?
God cannot work a miracle in your life if you are in denial. Let’s face it, when we are in denial and minimize the problems in our life we are ultimately saying to the Lord, “I am in no need of a miracle or any help from you.”
Why are we so afraid to be real as Christians? Why do we have to
walk around with a mask, being self-righteous thinking it is
always someone else with the problem. Is it because Christians aren’t suppose to get down, feel defeated, be discouraged, get depressed or anxious? Is it a lack of faith to struggle with something?
D. The Lord wants to bring us to a point of acceptance. When we accept where we are at then God can take us to another level, a better place. We go through denial, anger, bargaining and
depression but often never get to acceptance. Paul accepted where
he was at. He wrote in Corinthians that Christ’s power is made
perfect in weakness.
III. The Power We Experience
A. The Lord wants to give you a turning point in your life. He
wants to turn things around for you. The Apostle wrote that what
has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel.
Through your situation the Lord wants to advance the Gospel. When the Gospel, Good News, Good News in the midst of bad news, when the Gospel is advanced in us we advance along with it.
The Lord may not change your situation. Some things we are stuck with. Jacob limped, Moses stuttered and had anger issues, Aaron was weak-kneed, Gideon struggled with identity issues, Samson loved the women, David killed Uriah and slept with Bathsheba, and there was no changing it, the list goes on.
The Lord may not change your situation but he wants to change you in the midst of your situation.
The Lord may not change your situation but he wants to use it to further His Gospel.
The Lord may not change your situation but he wants to use it to help others, to bring them to Christ, to bring them to maturity. Look at Phil 1 again, “As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14 Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.”
How you deal with your adversity affects other people.
Let the power of Christ into your life.
IV. The Perspective We Have It’s all in how you see it.
A. Give your lemons to God and let him make some good homemade lemonade for you. Quit feeling sorry for yourself. It is doing you no good and you are getting no where in life.
B. Joseph, when all was said and done made this statement to his brothers, “What you intended for evil God meant it for good.” The Lord really is a good God and does have your best intentions at heart. He is able to work for the good all things we go through because we love him.
C. Some of you need a divine perspective for your life. Some of you need to see your past through his eyes. People have intended to hurt you but when you give it to God He’s going to turn it around for the good. Situations are coming in against you, the enemy is coming in like a flood, but the Spirit of God will raise up a standard in your behalf.
What has happened to me has served to advance the Gospel.
