Does He Fuel Your Fire?
Philippians 3:7-11
Healthy Condition #3: Passionate Spirituality
(Had this listed on a power point)
If you’ve been calling yourself a Christian, you should stop.
If you have ever encouraged someone to become a Christian, you should never do that again.
WHY?
"85% of the people in the United States call themselves Christians . . . 247 million people. . ."
And yet, there is little difference--if any--between a self-proclaimed "Christian" and a "non-Christian" in
• giving assistance to a homeless person
• correcting a mistake when a cashier gives too much change
• divorce at the same rate or just as likely to have an elective abortion
50% of Christians churches didn’t help one single person find salvation
(p. 15ff, Big Idea, Dave Ferguson, a fellow student while I attended Christian College)
Something appears missing.
FOUND IN HIM
If you could, where would you choose to be “lost for a day”?
• A jazz lover might select New Orleans,
• Cecil might select Augusta, Ga
• Christopher and Chuck might get lost at an Asphalting Convention
• a baseball fan Cooperstown, New York. After the “lost” day, you’d be found full of your experiences, even more drawn to music, pursuit of a little white ball, or sports trivia than before. (adapted from Life Application Commentary: Philippians)
Philippians 3:7-11
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Being found in Jesus Christ is, paradoxically, like being lost in him. Being “lost” in that relationship is to be happily abandoned with Christ, whose attraction works like a magnet. Time flies, love grows, your fascination with Jesus grows stronger than ever. Incorporate your life into Jesus Christ. To be found in him, you must live for him now. (adapted from Life Application Commentary: Philippians)
We are going to refer to this being “Found” in Jesus as “Spiritual Passion.” Totally engulfed and consumed by him.
If you remember, we have been studying what makes a healthy Church.
• We Work on the Quality
• God Provides the Growth!
This is “Natural Church Development”
Out of the 8 Healthy Signs of a Growing Church (refer to Candace’s board) we will look at our 3rd Sign (no particular order):
Health Sign #3:
Passionate Spirituality
Passionate Spirituality for us is being found in Christ, considering all other pursuits and identities a loss, just as Paul did. Keeping a well known metaphor for passion lit, we are going to be challenged today to consider that:
Big Idea: Jesus Lights in Us A Fire that Burns Like No Other
When he lights His Fire in us, there won’t be much confusing those on fire with those “out in the cold”
Transition: For a fire to blaze, someone has to first:
1. Ignite (it): (in Paul’s Perspective, Jesus)He Outshines all other attempts to find Fire/Life/Meaning/Value
No Comparison: He Outshines Me!
v. 9 . . . not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
Earlier in Philippians, Paul had gone over all the reasons he used to have confidence in himself: No Jew could boast a greater heritage or adherence to the Ten Commandments than he. In fact, he probably wasn’t referring to just the 10 Commandments, but all the 613 laws that were written by Moses, to be followed by the observant Jew.
Now the law wasn’t bad: it was given by God to show his people how to live. The problem is that the law can’t save you. It can only condemn you. From the perspective that NO ONE on their own, can keep “the Law” at all times. Anybody who does is just fooling themselves, like former Mayor Dinkins of NYC who said:
“Great” Thinker Quotes:
"I haven’t committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law."
-- David Dinkins, New York City Mayor,
answering accusations that he failed to pay his taxes.
If you break just one law, one time, you have broken all of it. You are not holy like God, and can NOT have hope of life with him. Any one who tries to justify their living by pointing out their goodness—and ignoring God, is about as convoluted as when former U.S. Vice-President Dan Quayle asserted:
"It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
-- Former U.S. Vice-President Dan Quayle
The impurities within us (SIN) are so great that only one thing can save us: the cross of Christ. The Cross is the ONLY means by which we can be declared righteous “good enough” before the Lord.
Focusing on Christ and His Cross will help us avoid two serious errors:
The first error is the performance trap. This is the oppressive condition that many Christians find themselves in:
Nothing I do ever seems good enough, or even just “enough.” I pray, I read my Bible, I volunteer to work for the church, but I always feel drained, defeated, and lacking. I seem to be operating on my own power. I feel God has placed unrealistic expectations on my habits and my character that I can not live up to. I feel guilty, depressed, and numb.
This is the performance trap: trying to earn God’s favor, trying to please people to tell me that I am a “good Christian.” But everytime I fail to please . . . I feel—even “know” that I really am a bad Christian.
We will need to switch from a "servant" mentality to that of a son. A servant is never secure, starts each day unsure, based on his performance of the day. When he fails, he might be let go. A son has a secure place in the family, resting in their love, and knowing that when he fails, he may be corrected and disciplined, but is not afraid of being thrown out. (adapted from Seamands, Healing Grace, pp 22-23)
You will find your answer to that centered in the Cross of Christ. I don’t want to oversimplify the path to healing if you are performance based. Living the opposite way, the “grace oriented life” is according to Christian counselor David Seamands, a process of changing patterns of life to conform to the life found in Christ. It may take time to change those patterns (David Seamands, Healing Grace 20-21), but the solution is to be found resting in Christ, clinging to the cross, not gritting our teeth and saying “I CAN DO IT” but saying with eyes looking to Him: “Thank YOU for Doing what I could not do on my own.”
The second error is the “I’m a good person” trap. We’ll take a closer look at that in our second point, but let’s wrap up this point of “He Outshines me . . . there is No Comparison.”Another way of saying he outshines me is to say my former life is not fit to hold a candle to Jesus. “To hold a candle to another: means literally “ to assist him by holding the candle while he works; hence, to help in a subordinate position. And so, it means Not fit to hold even a subordinate position to”
With slightly different meaning, we might be able to sing with Dolly Parton: Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You"
John wesley was an "almost Christian" who was strangely warmed as he learned of the change in the heart through faith in Christ . . . and he became an "altogether Christian"
This is where it all starts: Jesus has given me a life that I never had when on my own. No matter what I feel, I can always look to his work on the cross and remember that my life back then can’t even hold a candle to my life now. There is no comparison. It is a fact. And that fact ignites my Fire. It is where my life starts. It is where He dwells in me. And it is what I can focus on, even when my feelings betray my new life.
Transition: Once ignited, a fire must have:
2. Fuel: Knowing Jesus
Passion is not based on pure doctrine alone, but a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. Our enthusiasm, like Paul’s, is contagious. Our "religion" is NOT about performing our duty, as it is being on fire for Him, no matter what we are doing.
Missing the relationship part of life with Jesus is unthinkable for the spiritually passionate life! As another wise person stated:;
"Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life."
-- Brooke Shields, during an interview to become
spokesperson for a federal anti-smoking campaign
If we miss the relationship part, we do ourselves no good and find ourselves right back where we started from, in our sad beginning. As yet another wise person stated:
"We’re going to turn this team around 360 degrees."
-- Jason Kidd, upon his drafting to the Dallas Mavericks
Knowing Christ surpasses all our goodness. That relationship supercedes the BEST we have to offer. It is not so much "sin" (or at all, he would say) that Paul is driving at, but our best.
• People will turn to this passage and imply when they say “I count all things as loss compared to knowing Christ:” that “my sinful living sure doesn’t hold a candle to knowing Christ.
• Now, that is “not false”! Sinful living does NOT compare to a righteous relationship with Jesus
• But Paul is not so much comparing the “worst” we have to offer as the “best” we have to offer. He was saying “I was the best of the best.”
The “I’m good enough” principle asserts:
• I do good things!
• I pay taxes, teach my children respect, support my country, obey traffic laws, work diligently for my employer, treat people fairly: WHY WOULD GOD CONDEMN ME?
But as I read Paul proclaim:
• The surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
• for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
• 10 I want to know Christ!
He seems to be lead us away from justifying and on to comparing and moving us TOWARD appreciating. Appreciating Jesus.
Now I find myself reflecting: do I love him?
It makes me think of a Marriage where one partner is a "good person"
• Kind to children
• Bread winner
• Does chores
• Goes to bed on time, etc
but WHAT IF they lived in complete silence toward their mate, acting as they don’t exist. Not getting close or intimate. Would THAT be something to be proud of?
Wouldn’t we say "hey, that needs to be fixed?" You need to develop your relationship or you REALLY don’t have a good marriage!!!!
If Jesus IS real, and DID die and resurrect, then what does it mean when we go on existing as though he DOESN’T?? Our maker and friend and savior?
But when I finally, with Paul, “get it” that JESUS is the most important person in my life, and I am EAGER to develop my relationship with him, This is when it gets exciting! This really fuels the flame of my Spiritual Passion. Or should I say HE really fuels the flame.
Because my faith is not just knowing facts and memorizing words and doing good things. That would be not much better than my old life. My faith is fueled by a full blown relationship with the Lord of the Universe. I CAN KNOW HIM. I WANT to KNOW Him.
He is like no other. He revs my engine. Christ, the Messiah. King. My friend. Intimate Friend. Sacrificing for me friend. Living in me and I in Him friend. A friend to the end (4th point)
Transition: A Blazing Fire when Properly Fueled Continues to:
3. Burn: Living All Out for Jesus
"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can’t help but cry. I mean I’d love to be skinny like that but not with all those flies and death and stuff."
-- Mariah Carey
In a much wiser vein, acclaimed theologian Henri Nouwen asked himself one day:
DID becoming Older bring me closer to Jesus? Everyone said I was doing really well, but something inside was telling me that my success was putting my own soul in danger . . . [there] were signs that the Spirit was gradually being suppressed. (p. 20)
And so he left his life at Yale, and went to live with mentally handicapped men and women at a community in Canada, called L’Arche.
Paul looked at Jesus, and feeling the touch of his love and friendship and said:
10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
Nouwen also took a look at Jesus and declared
The world did not pay any attention to him. He was crucified and put away. His message of love was rejected by a world in search of power, efficiency, and control . . . (p. 36ff) The question is not: How many people take you seriously? How much are you going to accomplish? Can you show some results? But: Are you in love with Jesus?
When we are in love with Jesus, when we are on FIRE for (and with) Him, we can’t just sit on our hands. We must CHANGE! We must DO!
The power that Paul speaks of is none other than the Holy Spirit, the very power that raised Christ from the dead, changes our hearts to love at all costs.
The fellowship of his sufferings is to me, in part, betrays a deep desire by Paul to identify with Jesus in EVERY WAY, no matter the cost! Jesus loved to the point of pain. To the point of suffering: His CROSS will never let us forget that.
• Because he suffered, he knows our suffering
• Because he suffered, I gained life and true love
• Because he suffered and I gained, how could I do any less but to suffer with him, as he did, for his sake and the sake of others?? No matter the cost!
(Nouwen:)
OFTEN IT SEEMS THAT BENEATH THE PLEASanTRIES OF DAILY LIFE THERE ARE MANY GAPING WOUNDS THAT CARRY SUCH NAMES AS ABANDONMENT, BETRAYAL, REJECTION, RUPTURE, LOSS.
. . . In our world of loneliness and despair, there is an enormous need for men and women who know the heart of God, a heart that forgives, cares, reaches out and wants to heal. In that heart there is no suspicion, no vindictiveness, no resentment, and not a tinge of hatred.
There is not much point in being all fueled up with no place to go. To have a life of raging fire smothered by lack of air and space to burn. Spiritual Passion’s practical side is the “lived out life.” Living my life for Him alone. Transformed under his power, refining all the garbage and impurities by his power so I can burn brighter. And when His fire rages within me, it drives me to want to identify with him in every way. Nothing stops me: suffering or death: for then I am only like him. I fellowship with him. I am closer to him. I am consumed by him in a way that any hardship is not only powerless, but welcomed.
If you live gladly to make others glad, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full . . . " (John Piper, "Don’t Waste Your Life")
Transition: The flame “like no other” is the only one to burn:
4. Eternal: Never Extinguished
Question: If you could live forever, would you and why?
Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."
-- Miss Alabama in the
1994 Miss USA contest
Well, Miss Alabama, some people DO hope to live forever. For one the Apostle Paul hoped:
11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
We must never lose sight of the reality that this life is only temporary. What we do here, Who we know here, will have great influence on our eternal destiny.
A really good fire, you never want to burn out. (fade away . . .) My sufferings don’t matter and all the pleasures and hardships of my earthly life dims, as they all make way for eternity with him.
And so, I will experience the joy of the eternal flame
Conclusion
Being a Christian is not being good … but being ALIVE in Christ!
(Stetzer: inTurnaround Churches 10 ff, quotes John Mark Terry:)
We have the best materials, media, and methods, but we lack spiritual power. Christians of the apostolic era had non of our advantages; they didn’t even have the New Testament. still the turned the Roman Empire upside down. What impact does your church have . . . "
Lack of Passionate. Spirituality could be a reason the church doesn’t grow. (SHOW BARRELL)
Disobedience, bumbling of challenges, lack of repentance. Jesus did speak tough words to the Ephesus church in the book of Revelation: I am about to spit you out" remember your first love, the height from which you have fallen.
Jena Fleming wrote, "I find myself thinking, When life settles down, I’ll . . . but I should have learned by now that life never settles down for long Whatever I want to accomplish, I must do with life unsettled. p. 15" and that included for her, CONNECTING with Christ, Knowing him, Letting HIM light her Fire.
Our church in the past has had some hard times. It would be easy to stay there, regretting the past, or ignoring our Lord and his power—even our own fault.
But we should not stay there. We can become what they call a “comeback church.”
• Comeback churches are those who first had a spiritual experience that redirected and reenergized their lives . . . we know that is found in Relationship with Jesus
• And it is Jesus who will give us the vision and power to do whatever needs to be done in a broken world to MAKE AN ETERNAL difference for the cause of Christ. (adapted from Stetzer: in Turnaround)
This is why it IS vital that we declare with my friend Dave Ferguson: "I am no longer a Christian. I no longer try to convert people to Christianity . . . I am a Christ follower." (p. 29
