I RAN THE RACE AND WON!
10-3-10 New Liberty Christian Church, Veedersburg, IN with Pastor Richard T. McQuinn
TEXT: PHILIPPIANS 2:1-30
INTRODUCTION: This is a second of a series of sermons from the book of Philippians. The Apostle Paul is writing to perhaps his favorite church. It is a love letter from a Pastor to his formal congregation. He is presently in prison in Rome and has some privileges. One of which is to be able to write to churches and friends. You may remember that Timothy is with him and helping him each day.
If a former pastor of your church knew pretty well that he was going to die in the very near future and he writes a letter to his beloved congregation that he helped begin--what would you want your former pastor to say to you?
Paul writes about JOY. Jesus, Others, and Yourself. This is the JOY book. Paul tells them how much he loves them, how much they have meant to him, how much they have helped him in the ministry.
Each congregation is part of a ministry. When you ordain someone to go from your congregation and Preach the Gospel you are commissioning them to preach and teach for you.
The Arcadia, Indiana Christian Church was every part of my ministry when I went to Jamaica to hold revival meetings. They were with me when I went calling, when I prayed, preached, and witnessed. They were there when I asked people if they would accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. They were there when those souls confessed their belief in Jesus and accepted Him into their lives. They were with me when I went into the waters in the Jamaica rivers and baptized many. They prayed, they gave their money and they gave their time and efforts.
The Washington, Illinois Christian Church was with me just the same when I went to India to work for the salvation of others. When the food was tight, the water stunk, the flies, snakes, nakedness, they stood back home and prayed for me. Each sermon I preached, each lesson I taught, each soul won for Jesus was a part of the ministry of the Washington Christian Church and the body of believers there.
My present church is an extension of my ministry. They help in every way possible. When I share my joy with them of the witness to my neighbors, the calling of my neighbors and friends from their sins, teaching them in Bible studies and asking for their confession of faith in Jesus and in the joy of baptizing them. The congregation rejoices with me and what we are able to do together in the Lord. Amen!
There are three areas of this chapter two that I want to call to your attention. And in so doing, I hope you will appreciate this outstanding book as well as the outstanding prescription that Paul gives to all of us.
I. BE OF ONE ACCORD!
Paul is expressing his joy in a job well done to the Philippians.
Don’t you love it when your Pastor brags on you or on his congregation? Don’t you love it when someone tells you what a find son, or daughter, or wife, or father, or mother you have? Someone thinks highly of your kin folks? Surprise, surprise!
This is a love letter to the Philippians and I have to tell you, I really enjoy the reading of it often.
In the opening verse he asks the question, does your life in Christ give you strength?
Do you find strength and security in good ole American Money? Phooey! Or how about stocks and bonds? Or in traditional marriage? Banks, Insurance companies, the value of your home, the police, the President of the US?
Where is your strength these days? If it is centered on anything other than in the Son of the Living God then you are in for a real rough ride before death comes to you and an even rougher one after your death.
He questions his former congregation. He does this to call attention to them and their belief. The very same thing I am doing with you this morning. Do you work together in this congregation? Do you pray together for the good of the ministry in this community? Do you look after each other in the church and those not in the local church. Do you practice brotherly love?
Let others around you know that you are a big part of the ministry. You jell together for the purpose of teaching the Christians, serving the community and reaching out to the lost in Jesus Name.
I love it when the minister tells his congregation not to grumble. Do not fight between yourselves. The world does that enough and you are to better than the world.
One of the hardest things for most folks to do is to not take credit for something that had been done correctly and for the good of all. Remember that phrase: It does not matter who gets credit as long as the good job gets done. We have this ME-ites. I, Me, My. Paul tells us all to be humble, don’t let your stupid pride get in the way of your witness.
When you hold a conversation with another person--Who dominates the conversation the most? Who wants to talk about themselves more than anyone else?
That is a selfish person and a rather shallow one at that. Put your pride out the door. Give good credit to others. Do you think more highly of them than you do of yourself? When you do, you lift up Christ even more.
Verse 4 clearly states that we are to be interested in others. As a Christian you can not go to your Christian corner and stay there the rest of your life. “IF” someone wants to learn of Jesus and how to get to heaven, then they can come to my door and I will tell them or tell them to call the preacher. Matthew quotes Jesus when He tells us all to GO, TEACH, BAPTIZE, and TEACH some more. We can not do that if we are sitting on our rumps and expecting the world to come to us. YOU go out to the highways and byways and invite them in a dozen times if you have to.
When Jesus calls your name out in Heaven and He asks you of how many are in heaven because of your witness, because of your money to missions, because you took the time to invite them to church or Bible study. How many will stand up and testify that it was YOU that helped them get to Heaven. You took the time to give them JESUS.
II. BE UNSELFISH LIKE CHRIST
Most every scholar believe that this section of scripture verse 5-11 was a song sang in many early worship services.
So many worship services today are dead. Congregations are dead, they have not been pronounced dead yet. Do you sing and rejoice like there is life in your blood or just mosey along because it is in the bulletin. This is a time to rejoice, to find joy, to celebrate worship of Almighty God.
Singing was a great part of the early church. They sang their hearts out even when they thought they were going to die. They sang!
Do you have harmony in your blood today? Is there peace in your valley? Do you find shelter in the Cross of Jesus? Can you know assuredly that your sins are forgiven and you are going to heaven? If you can, then you have to sing like you mean it and know it.
Jesus is Jesus! Know what I mean? He is the SON of God. He is in the Holy Godly family. He is part of the team. He is the real McCoy. The dude is real. As COKE says. He is the REAL THING. With that in mind Paul writes to all of us here in this section of scriptures.
Jesus could have gloated that HE WAS EQUAL to God. He had every right to do that, but He did not do it. No one wants to be around a person who brags on themselves all the time. One of the marks of a Christian is that we pass on the glory to Christ and not ourselves.
You folks know full well that I hate to stand by the door at the end of the service and then you tell me that I did a great job on the sermon. I don’t like that! I do not want to steal any glory at all from HIM. NONE! I keep sharing with you that I would rather you tell me that you can use that sermon, that it helped you be a better Christian, etc. I can accept that because then I know the message worked and we both give credit to Jesus.
One of these days the sky will open up and Jesus will be standing there. The doubters will be standing there wondering what to do next. What are they going to say? Every eye shall see Him. Every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord! But is He YOUR LORD? It is one thing to believe that Jesus is God’s Son, but another thing to accept Him into your life as Lord and Saviour?
How is that working for you today?
Today is the day you should be making your confession that you believe that Jesus is THE Christ and that you want to accept Him today in your life. IF you wait until you see Him in the clouds, it will be too late for you. You see we all will KNOW then the final truth, but this is the day of your salvation, not tomorrow.
III. BE THE PEOPLE GOD WANTS YOU TO BE
When the cat is away, the mice will play! We learned that a long time ago. When the teacher is out of the room, or the preacher is on vacation, we do not seem to have the same discipline as it is when people of authority are right in front of us.
Paul tells his church that they worked so well together while he was with them. He loves them. He is very proud of the work done there. He is just reminding them that the phrase Out of sight, out of mind does not apply here. He is expecting them to carry on their ministry as if Paul was right in the midst of them.
He tells them to do it as a team, with joy, without arguing or decent. Be of one mind.
We have said for years---if we have a misunderstanding and we have a disagreement then we all agree to take it to the law book—the Bible and see what God has to say about it. We agree to accept what the Bible has to say. If the Bible is plain on the subject then we yield to the Bible. If there isn’t any clear cut line drawn, then we agree to have opinions of our own. There is no right or wrong here. We agree to be brothers with different opinions of certain subjects. We leave as one family together.
The last part of his joyous writing was to remind them that he knows that they live in a crooked generation. It is bad all around them. They will be in the minority, they will get picked on, they will be challenged for their faith, and they will be outcastes on several occasions. But, to keep the faith and persevere.
Look he says. I ministered to you. I helped you grow. No matter what the Romans do to me I know that you are with me in the ministry. I find great joy in knowing that you are standing with me in the Lord.
I have been diligent in my work and now toward the end of my life, I can say that I have already reached the place where I can see the end of the race and I already won!
Can you say that today? Have you won your race? Or did you quit?
Lastly Paul tells them about two special people in his life, Timothy and Epaphroditus. Great servants who have helped Paul in his ministry and struggles. Paul tells them to accept these brothers and thank them before the Lord.
We have had some great preachers come from this congregation. Each has had his place in the growth and challenge of the church. Have you stopped recently and offered you thanks to these special servants? Have you encouraged the preachers of your congregations? Have you prayed for those on the mission fields who are doing the work that you commissioned them to do?
Get with the plan that Paul talks about here. You are very much part of the ministry and every part that God wants you to play in.
AMEN and AMEN
