Building Strength in Christ
This past Thursday I fulfilled an assignment for a graduate class called Spiritual Formation. Each student was required to take a personal retreat and document it in a reflection paper. The assignment was this: we were to spend an entire day (eight hours minimum) alone with God. Now you might think that being a Christian and a preacher, I would really WANT to do something like this, but for some reason, I found it really hard to make myself do it. Taking an entire day to go off alone to be with God... it sounds nice and easy, I dare you to try it for yourself. No, I ENCOURAGE you to try it for yourself!
Let me just say that after doing it, I am hooked. What a day! I can much better understand and appreciate why Jesus often went off to spend time alone with the Father. This was one of the most spiritually encouraging things I think I have ever done.
So, what do you do for a whole day without TV, Radio, computer, phone calls, people, text messages, email, etc., etc., etc.? What happens when you get alone with just you and God for at least eight hours? We read about many of the characters of the Bible spending time alone with God, don’t we. Moses and Elijah did not just one but 40 day periods alone with God. Jesus also went out to the desert for 40 days right after his baptism and spent the whole time fasting before the Father. Interestingly, the Father wasn’t the only one that met Jesus out there. There is an enemy, one who also comes to us when we attempt to meet with God. One who will fill your mind with excuses and your schedule with business to keep you from meeting along with God. In fact, I’m convinced he was trying to keep me from taking a day alone with the Lord. I’m very thankful for Jenny’s encouragement to do this. I also want to thank the middle school class for praying for me about this. I taught their class Wednesday night before taking this retreat. I shared with them what I was doing and they promised to pray for me. I resisted doing it until the last day before class, and I wasn’t sure why. It just seemed like every time I’d try to nail down a day to do it, something would come up. In my darker moments I even thought about just making up something for a paper! Can you believe that? Where did THAT come from?
Some of you may be able to identify. It’s like trying to read your Bible through in 90 days. You’ve got to MAKE the time happen, or you won’t get it done. There’s a million excuses that fill your mind, and a billion things that get in the way. It’s a kind of discipline and spiritual warfare. We tend to have so much going on and so many things pulling at us that we tell ourselves, we just don’t have the time. But is this really true or are we being influenced by the enemy? What do you do if work or school demands you to take time to be there? Do you make excuses? Do you let other things get in the way? What do you do if your children have a game or performance? You take the time for those things! Do you not? Why? Because we place a high priority on these matters, don’t we? We do what we believe is MOST important, don’t we. We come to church because we believe it is important, don’t we. We all live by a kind of code, an internal standard of measuring what matters, a value system. But also, we are influenced by spiritual influences that are unseen, but very actively present. Ephesians 6:10f make this clear.
Where does your code come from? What shapes your internal value system? Is it God? To what degree do you allow God to guide your life? Look at Philippians 1:6 and tell me where Paul says their value and priority system comes from.
I am confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Who began a work in them? Who would perform it? What must happen for this to continue?
Paul writes to the Philippians in chapter 1:9-10 about God building this Christian value system and spiritual code of ethics in them.
And this I pray that your love may abound more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ...
What is he praying for them? That their... love may grow... and accomplish what? What is the result of this growing love? Real knowledge and discernment... so that they can do what? Approve... what? The things that are... what? Excellent! This will make them act sincerely and blamelessly!
Do you think this is purely a physical or mental thing that happened or is God doing something and they are cooperating with God in it?
What Paul is praying here is that God will help them have a Christ like value system. A code of Christian ethics that shapes the choices and actions of their lives. Brothers and sisters, this is not something you or I can accomplish apart from God working in us, but we have to cooperate.
What will this real knowledge and discernment do? Through it God helps them approve what is excellent. And as they approve what is excellent they will make choices and act in ways that shows God in their lives. Look at verse 11: having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Jesus put it this way: You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses it’s saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled under foot. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill can not be hidden. Neither do men light a lamp and put in under a bushel, but on a lamp stand and it gives light for all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven! Matthew 5:13-16
As Christians we are the salt of the earth, we are the light of the world! How is our flavor holding up? How is our light doing? If anyone here feels like you are not salty enough or bright enough, let me tell you something. You can’t make yourself more salty. You can’t energize your own light. Those don’t come from you! They come from Christ in you!
He who began a good work in you! Philippians 1:6, It is a cooperative effort though, just look at 2:12-13. You do it, because God is doing it in you. But, you say, I don’t feel God working in me. Or, I don’t see God working in my life so much. I have a question for you. Have you invited Him in and made room for Him to work? How much time have you spent with God so that He CAN work on you and in you?
Maybe a more important question is this: Do you really WANT God to work in you? Do you trust God enough so that you make space in your life so that He WILL work in you? Paul said to the Philippians, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, 4:13. Would you like for those words to be true of you?
When I was 16 I put that verse on a big poster and hung it on the wall of my bedroom so I could see it from where I slept. I read it every morning when I woke up and every night before I went to sleep. I figured if I just thought about and said those words enough, it would happen for me. That was a start. But I have since learned that Paul said those words after going through years of time with God and doing what Jesus led him to do. The spiritual exercise that builds spiritual strength involves not just repeating the words, but following the patterns of those who walked with God. Look at Philippians 3:17 and 4:9.
We need to do some spiritual body building. We need to get working on spiritual exercises that God gives us to grow stronger in the Lord and the strength of His might. Do you want that? Will you join a spiritual boot camp and begin building spiritual muscles in Christ?
I believe our study of Philippians can be a great guide for just that. But it will take more than simply coming to church and hearing me preach on it. You will have to commit to God to take spiritual action and allow God to work and guide you and grow His strength in you.
Come back tonight as we look at one of the first exercises in this little book. God wants to strengthen us in Christ, and we have a golden guide for spiritual body building and Christian growth right here in this letter to the Philippians. I’ll tell you more about my personal day with the Lord and share some insights that God gave me there.
