When I was a kid I loved to take things apart. Sure. That’s neat on the outside, and what it does it pretty neat, but what makes it work? What does it look like inside?
Whenever something minor broke down, it spelled opportunity to me. Because that meant it either needed to be fixed, or else it was beyond hope. Either way, that meant it had to be taken apart, and that’s how little boys learn about things so that when they grow into big boys one day they can attempt to fix them.
Story - Like the time that the vaporizer gave out. Maybe it was just dirty. For some reason, it wasn’t putting out steam. Maybe it wasn’t getting electricity like it needed to. So, I took the cover off the electrical parts, plugged it in, and connected the two prongs with a screwdriver. Nothing happened…at first. Then, after a brilliant flash of light, I realized it was getting electricity. I’d never seen a plug melt into the outlet like that before.
Story - You’d think I learn. I did. In fact, I learned enough to have confidence for fixing things now. Once our TV got moisture spilled into it, and I had to do the Dad thing and take it apart. Experience taught me to not mess around with electricity, so this time I unplugged it before I ever took off the back cover. I gained another lesson from experience when I grabbed hold of a thing called a capacitor. Don’t do that. If it says “capacitor,” don’t touch it!
There was once a day when watches actually had moving parts. I suppose pocket watches still do. If you ever took that back off you’d see that Mickey’s big hand and Mickey’s little hand were only 2 parts backed by dozens of little gears all stacked next to each other in the watch. And, if you took out one of those gears, the watch wouldn’t work.
I see a similar interdependence in the Church. It has a face, and inside, less-seen, are all the gears that make it tick. If you take one away, or one stops doing its part, the rest doesn’t work quite right. Paul, in some ways in this letter, is helping the Philippians see what will make them “keep on ticking.”
And we look at those pieces – those things that make us tick – and see that they’re just as important as they ever were. In fact, we’ll consider what they are, and then we’ll consider what it would be like if any one of them is left out of the picture.
3 necessary elements. Take away any one, and it just won’t work quite right. Our church won’t be what it could be. Your personal walk won’t be what it should be.
1. Growth
Ill - In a Peanuts cartoon strip, Snoopy sits droopy-eyed at the entrance of his doghouse. He sighs, "Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still be a dog. There's such little hope for advancement."
When we join up with Jesus and talk about being His “disciple,” we’re expressing our understanding that we should be growing. Discipleship means learning; it means there’s something you don’t know, and you learn it – you change; you mature; you grow.
In other words, if you’re a Christian, progress isn’t just necessary – it’s essential. Progress is actually part of who we are when we become Jesus’ disciples.
It’s like riding a bike – you’re either moving forward or you’re falling off.
Paul knew this. In this letter he speaks about his expectations that he’ll keep growing, and also that the Philippians will keep growing in Jesus.
Philippians 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
We can look at this a couple of ways today. We can say, “Oh, no, I’m not progressing! I’m not growing at all in my walk with the Lord. I need to make some changes!” Some of you need to say that today. On the other hand, you can look at this element and say, “Progress? Praise God that what I am right now isn’t what God’s going to make of me in the future! V6 is speaking about the good work of changing us and cleaning us up and getting rid of the crud in our past lives that still lingers around us. Jesus began that work in you and me. But, notice, it’s an unfinished job. He started this project, but “it’s not soup yet” until the day that Jesus comes again! And to that I say, Praise God! He’s not done with the process yet! I wonder how I’ll turn out!
So Paul had this hope and intention for the Philippians.
Philippians 1:9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
Philippians 1:25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith,
Do you get the impression that Paul actually cares about these people? I do! He’d love to die and go to heaven and rest from his work, but instead he could see that the Lord wanted him to stick around and work for their growth some more.
Would he write the same thing to us? I think so! Because, just like always, the Church needs to make progress. And one of the things that’s going to make that happen among us here is when enough of us become convinced that the progress of us as a congregation depends on our progress as individuals.
Philippians 3:10-14 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, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Paul pressed ahead. He realized that the church moving ahead depended on him moving ahead.
Progress makes the Church tick.
Ill – A young man who dives for exotic fish for aquariums said that one of the most popular aquarium fish is the shark. He said if you catch a small shark and confine it, it stays a size proportionate to the aquarium. Sharks can be 6” long yet fully matured. But if you the same sharks loose in the ocean, they grow to their normal length of 8 feet. That also happens to some Christians. I've seen the cutest little 6” Christians content to swim around in a little puddle. But if you put them into a larger arena--into the whole creation—that’s when they become great.
That principle was true of the early church. It matured, and did well, but they were staying in Jerusalem. Then, in Acts 7 Stephen was stoned for his faith in Jesus, the church scattered, and they got out of their puddle into Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. For the first time, people outside Jerusalem were hearing the gospel too.
In some ways, we need to get outside our puddle if we’re going to grow into all that the Lord intends for us to be. We need to make progress. Ralph Waldo Emerson – “Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” Have you?
Progress makes the Church tick. Take it away, and what do we become? We become less than the enemy. He’s advancing. He’s progressing. He’s using bigger means, different people, more money, whatever it takes to implement his agenda. How could we do less?
Sherm, this is a series on giving. What does this have to do with giving?
Simple – our stewardship, the use of the resources God has entrusted to us, is one area where we need to be making progress. The more we personally progress in this, it stands to reason the more the Lord’s work will progress. Do you believe it?
We need that element of progress if the church is going to tick.
2. Mutual Support
Philippians 4:21-22 Greet all the saints in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me send greetings. All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household.
“Everyone says ‘Hi!’” Why did they do that? There was a connection in Jesus.
There ought to be some kind of connection from working together, helping each other, supporting each other, from realizing they’re going to live together forever in heaven.
Ill – Here’s one to take home with you. Let’s just suppose someone has hurt you – really angered you, or just been nasty to you. Let’s just suppose there’s someone out there who’s your enemy - at least a casual enemy. Someone you really don’t like, and you struggle with your ugly thoughts toward that person. Not that you have anyone like that in your life, but, if you did, who might that person or persons be? Just suppose for a minute, imagine, and get that person in mind.
Then let’s just suppose that you really would like to live forever in heaven. OK?
Now, are you willing, where you sit this morning, to wish that other person would go to hell? Are you willing, right here today, to deep down hope that your enemy would spend forever separated from Christ? After all, you’re hoping for heaven. Are you really hoping to be, forever, in the same place where this other person is going to be? What are you going to do? See, you have a choice to make – you can either hope for, pray for, and act like you desire spending forever with that person, or you can wish that person would spend forever in hell. I don’t like that arrangement, because it means I have to let go of anger. But I don’t see there’s any way around it!
I don’t want to be wishing people into hell with my attitude. That means I have to wish they’d be with me in heaven forever. Try that out for a few days. See if it doesn’t change the way you think about people who’ve wronged you – especially if it’s a brother or sister in Christ.
Paul details one of the great pictures of this mutual support in ch 2. Listen to how everyone is looking out for one another:
Philippians 2:19-30 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon. But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me.
Those verses are a good example of the way that Christians look out for each other. Ill – I’m told that among the Hindus, if someone encounters misfortune, it’s not unusual for everyone else to just not worry about it. Someone falls off a ladder in the street in front of your house, “Oh, well, bad karma.”
Not so in the Church! And here’s where this applies to giving, because that was one of the ways the Philippians were mutually supportive of Paul. In fact, this letter is partly a thank you letter for their help. Paul had helped them to know Jesus and grow in Him. They provided for his needs so that he could continue and the Church could grow. It’s what made the Church tick.
Philippians 4:14-16 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need.
It’s a pattern: giving is part of what keeps the work of the Church moving on. When it’s sluggish, the Church can’t be what it should be. Back in the opening of ch 1, Paul spoke about his joy because of their partnership in the gospel. Some give of time and travel. Some give money. Everyone can pray. Everyone working together, giving what they can, is what makes it tick.
Now, take away any of this, and what happens?
The Church doesn’t work right. It’s that simple. Unless there’s consistent, mutual support among the Lord’s people, the work won’t move ahead like it should.
3. Christ-like Attitudes
quote - Viktor Frankl, Nazi concentration camp survivor – “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's way.”
In other words: attitude is a choice. It may sometimes be your only choice, but it’s always a choice.
So we have control over this 3rd needed element for the Church to tick. We have the ability to have Christ-line attitudes. This letter is full of what those are. We’ll list 5:
1. Have the attitude of Christ (especially as it relates to selflessness)
Philippians 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…
That’s the attitude that simply says You’re well-being is more important than my own.
2. Think about the right things
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
How are you doing at this? What do you think about? Is it true? Is it pure? Is it praiseworthy? So much of what we place in front of our eyes, listen to on the radio, or just roll through our brains fails this test. Paul gives this as a command. Don’t set your mind on earthly things. Think on the good things. Carry a list of the good things in your mind.
3. No complaining or arguing
Philippians 2:14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, (gulp!)
Joke - Warren P. Schilling – “During my 30 years of military service, I have collected several sets of identification tags. My favorite tags were issued in 1956 noting my blood type, Rh factor, and religion. Following my name and serial number were the words: A NEGATIVE PROTESTANT.”
Complainers are lazy. It’s less work to fix blame than to fix problems, isn’t it? So often, people who don’t busy themselves with worthwhile activities use their efforts to complain. The next time you find yourself complaining, remember you do that in direct disobedience to Phil 2:14. Now, what was that you were saying????
4. No fear
The line of clothing that says “no fear” on the back has been out for a few years now. Actually, that didn’t just get thought up a few years ago. Paul laid it out in this letter:
1:27b-28a I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.
4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
I’ve said it before: too much of our lives, too many of our decisions are based on what we’re afraid of: “What will he think?” “What if something goes wrong?” “This would be embarrassing!” “What if I don’t know what to say?” “What if they say ‘no’ or get mad at me?”
One right attitude we need in the church is the one that’s courageous. The church ticks when the people of the Church live like they really do believe God has everything under control.
5. Joy
Philippians 2:27-28 [Epaphroditus] was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety.
Wait a minute! Isn’t this the same Paul who’s writing this “epistle of joy”? What’s this talk about “sorrow upon sorrow” and wanting “less anxiety”?
Paul never said life was handing him peaches and cream! He never said he didn’t face some tremendous difficulties and heartaches. Fact was, he had plenty of them. But Paul, by his example and his instruction was helping the Philippians and helping us to see that joy isn’t contingent on externals. Pain is inevitable. Misery is optional. Paul is telling us that joy comes from the Lord, not from the stuff of life! So, when a person like that writes to you and tells you,
2:18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
3:1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.
4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
When a person who is in the midst of all kinds of joy-stealers tells you to rejoice, you’ll listen!
You’ve heard the expression, “Smile. It makes people wonder what you’re up to.”
Let me give one for us to use: “Live life joyfully! It makes people wonder what it means to be a Christian.”
There are all kinds of people out there who are looking for joy in false sources. There are all kinds of people out there whose perception of being a Christian is that you have a lot of rules and you don’t have any fun.
For the Church to tick in the world, we need to be giving the Lord an attitude of joy.
The church functions well when everyone gives a right attitude
Take away right attitude, even in one part, and what happens?
Ask Euodia and Syntyche - This is the only place in scripture they’re mentioned. What a claim to fame! How would you like it if you were named by name in the Bible only once, and that one time was when an Apostle had to publicly rebuke you for some foolish dispute you were having with a brother or sister in Jesus? That’s what happens when you fail to have a right attitude!
Conclusion:
What will make us tick? What will keep us effective? What will make us better where we’re lacking right now?
It’s about serving and Giving- So that the church progresses. Giving mutual support so that the work is upheld. Giving a right attitude, so that the work is unhindered. Take any of those away, and the Church won’t tick.
I’ve used an idiom today. You won’t find the phrase “making it tick” in your Bible. To use the words of Christ in Jn 17
“I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The reason for giving attention to this today is because Jesus loves His Church. He gave Himself up for you so that you would become His glorious, radiant bride without any spot or blemish.
Now is a great time to make a decision to do that (let’s pray)
