HOW TO BE A CHRISTIAN AND STILL ENJOY LIFE
A LIFE ENJOYED IS A LIFE SHARED Pt.1
Sunday February 3, 2008
Scripture Reference: Philippians 1:3-11
Intro.
A. Poss. Movie clip from Remember The Titans. [] Running on the same track.
Trans. Today we are going to begin our look into verses 3-11. Now as I have been saying all along in this series we are not in a hurry so we will not finish our look into all these verses today. What we are going to do today is explore V.3-5 and talk about what it means to discover joy in living through sharing our lives. I see two ways that Paul shows us how to find joy in our Christian lives. One way is through praying for others and the second way is through sharing in ministry together. So let’s begin with this first truth.
I. WE CAN FIND JOY IN LIFE BY PRAYING FOR OTHERS.
The first thing I want to draw your attention to is how Paul prayed for these Christians in Philippi.
A. How Paul Prayed For The Philippians Church.
1. One of the first things that jumps out to me here are the memories that Paul has of these people. Read V.3-4 now look at how it is translated in the NLT Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.4 Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, Now let’s remember where Paul is as he writes these words. As we know he is imprisoned for preaching the good news about Jesus and he is also chained to prison guards. Read with me V.13-14 (read). I can’t help but express again how important this is. We are learning in this series how we can live for Christ and still enjoy life. Paul once again shows us that the enjoyment of life is not about everything being in your favor. It is not about whether or not life is easy and our pockets are full. It is about our relationship with Jesus that is where real joy is not only discovered but kept!
2. I think there is a probable question that arises from these words of Paul. Here it is, “Am I the kind of Christian whose memory sparks joy in the hearts of others?” What that means is, “When others think about me does that memory bring them joy or sorrow? Let’s just refine the context of that question a little. Let’s make the focus of that question just within this church family. Does the memory of us bring joy to people here at Cornerstone or does the memory of us bring sadness? When others think of me do they think, “I am so thankful for _________.” “They are always so faithful, so consistent, so willing to help even if it is not their so called place of expertise.” Or when others think of me do they think, “Boy I hate to ask ________ to help out.” “They hardly ever say yes and if they do I can’t really be sure they will follow through.”
3. As a pastor I think I know a lot about what Paul is saying here. After 22 years of ministry there are some people with whom I remember with great joy. People who over and over again illustrated by the life they lived their great love for God and His church. I remember people like Bob Stadler, Carole Jang, and Ruth Garner. I remember people like Robert & Debi Jones, Steve & Dottie Chandler, and Preston & Ella Gandy. These are people from the last two churches I have pastored, but let me also say that I can say this same thing about Cornerstone. Now to keep from getting into trouble I won’t mention specific names, but I can assure you of this. When I pray for you I pray with thanksgiving. In a few minutes we will look at how these Philippian Christians partnered with Paul and the ways they partnered with him are the same ways that you have also partnered with me in God’s work here at Cornerstone.
4. Another thing that strikes me in Paul’s prayer is who he prays for. Now I know you think I just talked about this but there is more. Look at V.4 (read). Did you see it? Did Paul say, “When I pray I pray with joy for those of you who were always on my side?” Did Paul say “I always pray with joy for those of you who never gave me any trouble?” Did he say, “I always pray with joy for those of you who gave 20% in the offering instead of just 10%?” NO,NO,NO! What Paul did say was that he prays for ALL of them all the time. Now let’s all be honest here shall we? This is not easy to do is it? How is it that Paul could pray with thanks giving and with joy for even people who might have disagreed with him and didn’t think he was always doing the right thing? I believe the answer in part at least is found in this very letter. Let’s turn back to 3:15-16 read. Now Paul is not being condescending here, he is not saying “Well I will pray for you even though I know you are acting t his way because you are spiritually immature. I believe that the reason Paul could pray this way is because he was excited about the possibilities and potential that was still available to these people. He had seen the grace of God at work in their lives as we will also in the coming weeks and he could pray with joy and thanksgiving because he knew all that God could and WOULD still do in their lives as they submitted themselves to him.
Trans. Now we have looked at how Paul prayed for these believers now let’s talk about WHY He prayed for them as he did.
B. Why Paul Prayed For The Philippians Church.
1. The answer to this question is found in V.5 and it is this key concept in this verse that we are going to stay focused on for the remained of this message. The reason Paul could pray the way he did for these believers was because of their partnership with him.
2. Now what is this partnership? The actual Greek word translated here as partnership is Koinonia and most of you know that word in the English is translated Fellowship. Back a few years ago when we did our 40 day of Purpose emphasis we learned just what fellowship really is. For most of us we look at fellowship as friendship. We went golfing and had “Great fellowship”. We went fishing and had “Great fellowship”. We had dinner together and had “Great Fellowship”. Now we can certainly have great fellowship when we golf, fish, eat, or for the ladies SHOP, but fellowship as the bible describes it is so much more than these things. As Rick Warren says it is more than coffee and casual conversation. As we learned long ago real biblical fellowship means loving others as Christ loved us. Now this also means a whole lot more than have strong feelings for someone. If we want to know what this love is like then all we have to do if look at the example Jesus gave to us. Was the love Jesus showed us on the cross something more than a strong emotion? I think it was. That is why I like the way most bibles translate this word in this verse to partnership because that is what real fellowship is all about. It is about people working together. Having fellowship with God is so much more than having strong feeling about God, it is partnering with Him in his plan and purposes. It is putting my hand in His and saying “we are in this together”. [] Think of this as the difference between a wedding and a marriage. In a wedding there is high emotion and then we have a great party and everyone has fun, but a wedding does make a partnership. The partnership begins when we live out those commitments we made during the wedding ceremony. The partnership is seen when the emotions are gone and things get tough but we say, “We are partners we committed to this partnership and we will stay true to those commitments.”
3. Now let’s be honest again, we are seeing less and less of this kind of partnership in marriages just as we are seeing less and less of this partnership in the church. How often do we see in the church when things get rough, when things don’t go the way we want them to and people leave? Listen things will never be exactly as you and I want in the church. As a pastor I don’t always get everything I want and I shouldn’t. This is not a dictatorship. Now I realize that God has called me to lead this church and it is my responsibility to set the direction for Cornerstone, but that doesn’t mean every idea I have needs to be adopted in order for our vision and mission to be fulfilled. I have told my church boards for years that when there is something that I feel very strongly that God wants us to do they will know it. As one of my leaders told me a log time ago “You need to decide what to shed blood for.” There are some things that are good ideas but are not worth shedding blood for and there are others that are.
4. Now consider this, what is it that unites us? What is it that enables us to be partners, to have fellowship even though we are all so different? A long time ago when I first entered into the ministry there was the thought among those in the church growth areas that for churches to grow they had to be homogeneous. In other words the churches needed to be made up of people that were alike. That sounded good the only problem was that it really wasn’t biblical. Think about the church at Philippi how homogeneous was this church when it started? The first convert was a woman salesperson who wasn’t even from the city. Then the next convert was a demon possessed woman that Paul delivered and the third convert was a jailer. Now if you were going to start what you hoped to be a successful church would this be the kind of group you would want to start with? Probably not and yet from these three unlikely people a great church arose a church that Paul had high praise for.
5. Our fellowship or partnership is not based on race, economics, intellect, or social status. Our fellowship is based on what we learned last week, Being In Christ. It is because we are “In Christ” that we can have this great fellowship or partnership even though there may be great differences between us. [] I have great fellowship with Pastor Jose in San Vicente and I only see him now once a year and I can’t speak his language. How can that be? It is because just as Paul said of the Philippian church our partnership is in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are drawn together by a single passion, reaching our world for Christ!
Trans. Now as I said a few minutes ago I want to stick with this idea of partnership and so what I want to do in the remaining minutes of this message is to show you the partnership the Philippian church had with Paul. As I believe we see in these verses a life enjoyed is a life shared.
II. WE ENJOY LIFE THROUGH SHARED MINISTRY.
Notice with me quickly here the various ways that the Philippian church shared in this ministry with Paul. First of all:
A. The Philippian Church Shared In The Ministry Of Prayer.
1. One of the members of my Creative Worship Team e-mailed me the day I was writing this message and they told me that they had gone online to Google, which means to search for a topic on the internet for those of you who do not surf the web. Any way they wanted to search the topic “Why do we avoid praying?” Interestingly they discovered that there was no information on this subject in fact the massive search engine asked if the request was meant to be “Why do people avoid crying?” well I can’t spend time here exploring the topic of why people avoid praying although I know they do but what I also know is that the Philippian church did not avoid praying. Just as Paul prayed for them they also prayed for him. Look with me at V.19 here in chapter one. for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. You know I realize that some times we are tempted to say something like, “Well all I can do is pray.” We usually say this because we either can’t be involved in some ministry or we can’t make a financial contribution, but if we are really going to pray then we are doing a tremendous work! What I mean by that is that if we are not simply going to think about that person or that situation but if we are really going to get on our knees and pray for them we can actually become a pipeline for the spirit of God to work in that person’s life. Paul knew these people were praying for him and I think he knew this in two ways. He knew it because this man Epaphroditus whom the Philippian church had sent to Paul as we will learn more about later probably told him about the times the church spent in pray, but I also believe Paul felt those prayers even before Epaphorditus told him about them. I can testify to you that there are times when I feel the prayers of the people and there is nothing like it, but let me add that I have also felt the lack of prayers and there is also nothing quite like that feeling either. [] It’s about like I felt the day Dale and Catherine’s business burnt to the ground and I was trying to put out the fire with a garden hose. No matter what I could do with that hose nothing would stop that fire. I also know that with prayer I can take that same hose and stand before that same fire and the fire doesn’t stand a chance. That my friends is the power of prayer. That is why we must be a praying church if we are to be not only a joyous church but a powerful church.
Trans. Well let’s look at another partnership they had.
B. The Philippians Shared In The Ministry Of Evangelism.
1. We see this in V.5 but look at V.27 also (read). Now we will probably spend at least one Sunday on this verse so I won’t say a great deal about it right now but here is what I do want you to see. Notice that V.27 tells us that this sharing of the gospel is not always an easy thing to do. Notice that they are having to “stand firm” and “contending” for this faith. It is much like Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy four that he had fought the good fight and kept the faith. The fact is that this world we live in is not always open to the good news about Jesus. Sometimes we find people who are open and ready to hear about God’s love for them but on most occasions people are either hostile or at best indifferent to the message we share. We need to be as Jesus said, as wise as serpents yet harmless as doves.
Trans. Here is another way they shared with Paul.
C. The Philippians Shared In The Ministry Of Suffering.
1. Look at V.29 (read). Notice that Paul said you have been “granted” to suffer for Christ. It literally means you have been given a privilege or a favor to suffer. Doesn’t sound like the sort of thing we are anxious to be granted does it? The idea of it being a privilege to suffer does not jive in our culture today and I hate to say this but even in some churches this truth is avoided. There is a very popular preacher on TV these days (I won’t mention his name because it may offend some of you but I am sure you can figure out who I am talking about) but I was watching him the other day when we were on vacation and all he talked about was how you and I just need to expect God to do great things for us and He will. Our whole problem is that we don’t expect to be well so we aren’t. We don’t expect to be rich so we aren’t. Now I am all in favor of riding ourselves of stinking thinking. There is nothing holy about being an eternal pessimist if there were I would be the Mother Teresa, OK? But we are rejecting the very teaching of Jesus if we believe that suffering and trouble are not a part of our life in Christ.
Trans. I would love to spend more time here but I will never finish this message if I don’t move on. Here is another very important way that the Philippians shared in ministry with Paul.
D. The Philippians Shared In The Ministry Of Support.
1. The Philippians not only prayed for Paul, they not only shared their faith. They not only suffered for Christ, but they gave material support as well. They did not say, “We are with you in spirit Paul.” Actually what the Philippians did was rather than using that spiritual cop out instead they immulated the spirit of Paul. As Paul was a giver so were they and they did so in a very material way.
2. I talked about this a minute ago so let’s go to chapter 2:25 and read about Epaphroditus (read). We are not told just exactly what Epaphroditus brought but most scholars believe it was not just a new set of cloths or bath soap but that it was also some finances. Let’s turn to 4:15-16 (read). Now I know this is everyone’s favorite topic. You are consistently e-mailing me and asking me, “Pastor would you PLEASE preach about finances, about giving tithes and offerings. We just never get enough of this topic.” So because you asked here are a few words on the subject.
3. One of the things I often hear about the subject of tithing is that it is not mentioned in the New Testament. Actually it is mentioned in a story Jesus told in Luke 18:12, but let’s go with the idea that it isn’t mentioned and therefore we are not obligated to give a tithe. If we are not obligated to give a tithe then what are we obligated to give? Well I think we see that answered here in Philippians. Let’s look more closely at 4:14-19 (read). Paul doesn’t say a word in these verses about tithing, aren’t you glad for that? Let’s all give a shout of praise to Paul he has single-handedly removed from us the obligation to tithe. Yes you are right Paul did not speak about tithing but what he did speak about was overwhelming generosity! Notice that in V.15 he tells us that no other churches helped him except them. This clearly shows that other churches knew about the need but didn’t do anything, but there is more. Look at V.16 (read). Notice that here Paul tells us that not only did they give but they did so “again and again”. That certainly speaks of generosity, but now look at V.18 (read). To be “amply supplies” means, “Super abound”, “in access” “superfluous”.
4. So here is my question, does anything here sound as though these Christians at the church in Philippi said, “Hey we have given our ten percent so we have done all we are required to do. If needs aren’t met don’t blame us?” If we truly want to remove the tithe from our vocabulary fine, but now look what we have to deal with a church that gave over and over again so that Paul was in access. Can you tell me the last time you heard a pastor say, “We have all we need in fact we have an access so we are going to forego the offering today, in fact we do not need to take an offering for the rest of the month.” If we were actually following the New Testament model wouldn’t we be saying the same things Paul is saying? We have two more months left in our church year and if you got your year end contribution receipt you know that right now were are about $20,000.00 behind in our minimum budget needs. Now I know this will probably hurt a little but I have to poise the question, “If we were giving the way the early church gave would this deficit exist?” I believe the answer is clearly “NO” we are not. Many of you have said to me that you would love for us to hire a full time youth pastor. So would I but how? If we are not willing to even give the minimum amount of ten percent (which by the way I am thoroughly convinced that if everyone was doing we would already be experienced this ample supply) but if we are not willing to do even that how can we expect these sorts of things to happen?
5. Well I have probably made enough enemies for one day, but before we leave this topic just notice with me one more thing Paul told us in 1:5 (read). Notice Paul said their support was from the first day until when? NOW! I can tell you that any pastor appreciates those occasional gifts that come through. They often time pull us out of a hole, but what allows us to sleep soundly at night is the consistent and faithful giving of the body of Christ. I have a pastor friend right now who lives through this nightmare almost every week. He is consistently having to hope that some significant gift comes though so that basic needs can be met in his church. My friend as the bible says in several places “This ought not to be.”
OUR NEXT STEPS:
A. Now comes the most important part of the message, the “SO WHAT?” So what pastor, what does this all mean to me? What am I supposed to do about all you have just said? Well let me see if I can help.
1. First of all I think we need to do is take an honest evaluation of ourselves and ask a few questions. The first would be: Does the memory of me bring joy to this church I am a part of? When the pastor or others think about me are they praising God for my faithful to God and to His church? Do they recall with joy my eagerness to become more like Christ or do they recall my resistance to worship, prayer, and bible study? If you are really feeling brave you might ask someone whom you trust to be kind and yet frank with you what they think about when they think of you. If you feel the answer is that the memory is not pleasant then what steps can you begin to take today to change that memory?
2. This second question will most likely already be answered by the first. I am a true partner in the gospel of Jesus Christ? Am I a true partner in the fellowship of this church? We have already seen what that partnership involves so I won’t repeat what I have already preached. * Now let me say this, I am not call for perfection here. I am not saying you have to do everything perfectly to be a true partner, but I do believe we ought to strive for excellence in all we do. Here is how we can ascertain is we are doing things excellently. “Can I or We do this better than we are doing it now? If we can then we should! Look with me again at 3:15-16 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. In my opinion this is the call to excellence. We are not Inland Hills Church and we are not Calvary Chapel. We are Cornerstone Community Church Of The Nazarene and I am convinced that we can be church that excels in whatever we do. But as God grows us and as people come to us that have certain gifts and abilities we can begin to do new things and do them with excellence. Now speaking of excellence let me give you one more scripture and then we will close. 2 Corinthians 8:7 But just as you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us --see that you also excel in this grace of giving. How can you become a better partner in the ministry at Cornerstone?
