This week my assistant who works for me… Tracy, who's worked with me for five years…she's great. I love her very much. But she has decided to move on and is leaving us with a hole in our ministry. So in a desire to replace her quickly, I put an announcement out. You probably saw this. So you should see it, you should pass it on to others because I'm waiting for God to provide the right person for this position. It's a ministry person. I entitled the job Pastoral Assistant and Church Planting Team Member. I want people to know you're going to be part of Calvary Chapel. This is a very important thing that you're going to be doing. And because I wanted to get it out quickly, I not only put it on the Christian job search sites, but I put it on Facebook and Indeed and Google jobs, you know, out there, so all kinds of people can find it.
I was surprised at the responses. We have someone interested in coming and working for us from Nigeria and someone else from Kiev. I'm going okay, well, anybody locally? But here's what was most interesting – how many people that are nonbelievers responded to the opportunity to work in our church to be this pastoral assistant and church planting team member. So my response when I get the resumé, and it has nothing about anything about Christianity on it, my response was to say, “Can you tell me about your experience with church?” Because that statement is going to allow a believer to say, “Well let me tell you about my relationship with Jesus.” Where a person who's not a believer is going to tell me about their church experience.
One lady says, “Well I don't have any church experience, but I learn quickly.” I'm thinking you got a lot to learn quickly.
Someone else says, “Well I grew up in a Christian home.” Well, that's a little closer. Maybe this person is a Christian, I'm not sure. I don't want to judge people based on their responses here.
But someone else says, “Well my church experience is I went to a Catholic school.” So apparently sometimes people believe that because they have some past experience that that somehow gets them into a position. If they organized an insurance office in the past, maybe they can organize me and do ministry here at Calvary Chapel. I was surprised.
It was very encouraging for me to talk to one young lady who said, “I am saved. I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.” This is the right answer, by the way, as I'm asking the question. If you ever get asked the question what is your church background, this is the right answer. I'm going to tell you just so you don't mess this up anywhere you go. Okay? And if you don't know this, you need to know this answer now. I don't want anybody here at Calvary Chapel to be confused. Alright, if you're going to have an experience with church, if that's the question, your answer is this: I'm saved. I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I'm serving Him. That's what it means to be a Christian. Okay? If anybody doesn't realize that yet, I want to help you. I can help you today, I can pray with you and introduce you to God in a personal way because you want him to be your Savior, to save you from your sins, and yet you want Him to be your Lord, the one that you are bowing to, serving, that He's running your life. That's what we're talking about here in all of us.
Now once you do that, then your perspective of life changes. You see things differently. All of a sudden, you realize, as those of us who are Christians for a while realize, that the world is somewhat of a hostile place for Christians. I mean it's at least challenging sometimes to take a stand for Christianity. It's sometimes challenging to say, “This is what the Bible says or this is the right thing.” It's a challenge wouldn’t you say? Some of you? Maybe? Yes, it is a hard place. And I think that sometimes we want to take a stand when other people say you need to sit down.
Today we're going to learn about that. But I want to read the story about this young lady who's twelve years old. Brave girl. Stands up against a Texas teacher who told students God is not real. We need more people like this young lady, Jordan.
A young Texas girl is being praised for her courage and unyielding faith after she stood up against her teacher who kept insisting that God doesn't exist. Jordan Wooley, a seventh grader at West Memorial Junior High in Katy, Texas calmly testified at a school district hearing Tuesday after a bizarre reading assignment asked the class to say God wasn't real and left several students in tears. “Today I was given an assignment in school that questioned my faith and told me that God was not real,” she said at the podium, addressing eight members of the panel. “We were asked to take a poll to say whether God is fact, opinion, or a myth.” The assignment laid out several statements including ‘there is a God’ and prompted students to weed out the facts from the opinions. “Youngsters who said the statement was a fact or an opinion were flat out told they were wrong,” Jordan said. “When kids would argue she told them they would get in trouble,” the little girl said during her five-minute testimony. “When I tried to argue, she told me to prove it.” Jordan cited the Bible stories and people coming back from heaven. Her teacher slammed both saying they were just things that people were doing to get attention. Those who wouldn't be swayed on their beliefs turned in their assignments, saying it was a fact that God exists. “Their answers were crossed out several times,” Jordan said, “I know that it wasn't just for me who was affected by it. My friend, she went home and she started crying. She was actually supposed to come with me to testify, but she didn't think she could.” Several members of the Katy Independent School District called the girl courageous for her giving her side of the story. “Very brave of you,” one said. “Good job.” The video of her testimony has been viewed by thousands of people on Facebook, where it was captioned “Bravery.” I think we need more people like Jordan who are told to sit down when they need to stand up or we try to stand up for Christ.
Paul today in our passage is going to address this very important issue. When you want to take a stand for Christ and people tell you to sit down, what should you do? Now Paul's whole motif is changing now. His dialogue, the way he's talking to us in these verses change. I've underlined several words to illustrate how the terminology is turned into like a soldier terminology, like you're fighting a battle. So I underlined the words. These are our verses today. You can take notes in your book if you'd like and you can underline these words. I'm going to break this up into some different parts so that you can take notes and remember the things that we're talking about. I think this is one of those sermons you're going to come back to. I think there are going to time be times when you try to take a stand in your family for what's right and someone laughs at you. I think there are going to be times when you take a stand at work for something that's right and someone's going to challenge you. I think there's going to be times when you tell people that Jesus is God, and they're going to give you a hard time. And when they do, you need four things. But notice the verbiage that's being used here. Standing firm, striving side by side, opponents, destruction, salvation, suffer, engaged in the same conflict. All kinds of military terminology here to describe what's going on.
Now in this passage Paul is going to share with us four things, four ideas that can help us to be able to take a stand when others want us to sit down. We're just going to look right through the passage verse by verse and we're going to identify these four things like a stool that has four legs, so that when you find yourself being challenged, you will know how to stand up when others are telling you to sit down.
So let's go to the first two lines here. Let me read them to you. Because I'm going to talk today about politics, I'm going to talk about sports, I'm going to talk about travel, and I'm going to talk about a gift. Those four are the illustrations, the points you're going to pick up as we go. But when we get to this first verse, notice it says – Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you… And we’ll go on into that in just a moment.
Here's our first thing we're going to look at. This first word, the manner of life, is the Greek word politikos. You can write that down. Just politikos right there. That's what the word manner of life is translated. And it's a word where we get our English word ‘politics,’ ‘policy,’ ‘police’ (they're the ones that enforce the policies of the politics). And so that's the word being used there. It’s this idea of having a politics.
Now don't think about American politics at the moment. Think about the politics of the kingdom of God. Because in this passage what Paul is saying here is you need to conduct yourself as a good citizen of the kingdom. You want your citizenship to be demonstrated in the way you live. And that citizenship is your conduct, your policies, as we might say, or your political kingdom views. And so he says, conduct yourself in a particular way that demonstrates you're from the kingdom. We are part of a kingdom, the kingdom of God. When Jesus came to earth he took…. Matthew 5-7 is the Sermon on the Mount describing many of the policies, the ways the kingdom of God is different than the earthly kingdom. We live our lives in that way. So that's what he's saying. Conduct yourselves (that's what some version say) or here, let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Now the word worthy is the idea of weighing two things out. We use the term worthy in that respect in our own language in English. We’ll say that that person is worthy of the reward they receive. What we mean is that their performance is commensurate with the reward that they're experiencing or that trophy that they're getting. Or we say that someone is worthy of their bonus that they received or their pay that they're getting. They're worthy of that because their performance or their work that they're doing matches, it weighs out with the value of that particular salary that's available. You see. So there's this weighing that takes place.
So Paul is basically saying in this first one, here's number one (you want to write this down): If you're going to take a stand for Christ, you're told to sit down, you want to keep your focus clear. That's the number one here. Keep your focus clear. That means you're going to focus on your citizenship in the kingdom and make it weigh out to be worthy of something.
Okay, a standard. The standard is important because sometimes we make decisions about whether we're going to stand up based on whether people are going to like us, whether it's going to get us ahead, how we're going to benefit from this somehow. And God is saying, no, no, there's another scale that's going to balance things. Keep your focus in the right place so that you can move forward. Now where's your focus going to be? You see it there? On the gospel of Christ. So you're weighing things out. Is your manner of life, your politics, your policy, the way you live going to match the gospel of Christ? And so we're weighing that out continually. If we can keep our focus in the right direction, then we can go ahead and move forward. We can take a stand, even when others tell us that you need to sit down.
This is what happened with Peter and the disciples. They were thrown into prison in Acts 5. So they're in this dungeon, but the angel of the Lord came at night, opened the door, and they walked out. And so the next day, the religious leaders are saying, “I thought we put those guys in prison. What are they doing out here? We don't know. How did they get out of here?” It's kind of a funny story. Because they come and they say to Peter and the other disciples, “You guys can't preach the gospel anymore.” In other words, you need to sit down. And Peter's response was, “No. We obey God rather than man.” Right? It's the very same thing that we can experience in our own lives when we're told to sit down. When we know we need to take a stand. The answer to the question is no, I follow a different standard, I weigh it out with the gospel of Christ. And so I'm going to preach the gospel. That's what they said.
I think our focus is really important. Did you know focus is really the only thing you can control. You can't control all the stuff around you, but you can control your focus. I imagine that story of Peter, when he's in the boat, and he sees Jesus in the night walking on the water. Peter often was a guy that was run by his emotions, often saying things before he really knew what he was talking about. In this case, he says to Jesus, “Hey Jesus, if that's really you out there have me come out on the water with you.” Jesus says one word. He says, “Come.” So that leaves Peter in a very interesting place. I can't even imagine what it would have been like. Did he step out of the boat? I mean, we're in a storm. He steps out of the boat somehow, and the water is hard and he can walk on it. So he turns and he starts walking toward Jesus. He could walk on water, this is so amazing, until what happens? He loses his focus. When he loses his focus and he gets frightened by the things around him, he starts to fall down into the water.
Paul is saying look, conduct your life in a manner worthy, balanced out with the gospel. Keep your focus in the right place. That's principle number one of this four-legged stool in order to stand firm. Number one is focus.
Let's continue on. He says – whether I come and see you or I'm absent (in other words, what he's saying is, you know, I'm in this house arrest and I might be able to come and see you or I might not) but I may hear of you (and let's go to the next part of that verse) that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. That you're working together is what he's saying.
The first word he uses there is that you're standing firm. This is the idea of planting your feet. Now imagine that you are surrounded by the opponent team, the other team out there, and they're getting ready to come at you. So there's this picture of planting your feet, you spread your legs apart, bending your knees, you're getting ready. I think we need to realize that getting ready is part of the process of taking a stand when others want us to sit down. You have to be ready.
Remember, again, Peter is the one who said – Always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within you. Does that mean I have to have all the answers for why creationism is better than evolution? Or do I have to have the answers to all kinds of questions about the Bible? Do I have to have answers for all those questions about all kinds of theology? No, I don't have to have all of those. It might be nice if I do sometimes, but the most important answer I can share is about this hope I have within me, this testimony that I have about what God has done in my life. Stand firm is the idea here. And that's the first word.
Then he says firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. Now he's talking about a group of people here in one mind striving side by side. The word striving by side by side, you can underline them. That's the word sunathleo. Sun is that prefix in Greek, which means together or with. That means you're not doing it alone. You're doing it with other people. And athleo is where we get our word ‘athlete.’
So I'm going to suggest the second principle that helps us to stand firm when other people want us to sit down is to be part of the team. Be part of the team. You see the picture is yes, you can stand firm and be ready for whatever is going to happen in the sports arena. But if you're standing next to another guy and another gal, and you're all standing together, there's this firmness, this standing firm that allows you to, as he says, strive together side by side, for the faith of the gospel. We're working as a team. Christianity is a team sport. It's not an individual sport. There's this opportunity when we come together, that it does something for us, that allows us to stand firm.
That's one of the reasons we enjoy coming and fellowshipping at church. Can you be a lone ranger Christian? Well maybe. I question how successful you can be because God has designed what He calls the church to be this placed where we strive side by side for the faith of the gospel.
Notice, again, it's the gospel. This is the second time the word gospel is mentioned here. It becomes our standard, it becomes our goal, it becomes where we're going in our lives. We're striving together in this big arena, this team. Be part of the team.
In our church we want to not only be heavily involved in discipleship. That's what we do on Sunday morning, a lot is discipleship. We want to take God's word and make it relevant and practical for our lives. Try to understand it with integrity and then pass on the practical applications that we can go away from. That's discipleship. Being able to grow spiritually. And that's why we do it not only here with adults, but also with our children. Discipleship is a very important thing that we do.
But we're also involved in service. So we have what we are calling the A-Team. We're asking you to be part of the A-Team here at Calvary Chapel Living Hope. This is the group of people that are saying, “Yes, I want to serve somehow.” Maybe you're serving here on Sunday morning to get things ready or be part of children's ministry. Maybe you're serving in other ways to go on a mission trip to Baltimore. Any way that you're serving. You're part of the A-Team or the action team that says, “Yes, I'm not just about me. I'm about spreading the gospel in the message of Jesus Christ to other people.” That's who we are. We want to be a church that is dedicated completely to discipleship and outreach. Those two things draw us together and make us a formidable team together.
The second principle is be part of a team.
Well let's go on. He says in verse 28 – and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. He's saying and don't be frightened. I'm going to suggest that the third thing, the third leg on the stool, is to be courageous. To have courage. It takes courage to take a stand, to stand up. It's going to take courage because some people aren't going to like it. Some people might put you down. Some people might criticize you, distract you, whatever it might be. But taking a stand requires this courage.
I admire my granddaughter. Her name is Hanale. Hanale is eleven years old. Now she's been homeschooled all of her life. There's some great things about homeschooling. It allows you to develop more of an independent way of thinking and so on. But this young lady, Hanale, went to school for the first time, public school now she's in at eleven years old. Here we are now in what month are we in? The third month of school. She sees a young man in her class that has a low self-esteem and kind of an awkward kid. There's four boys picking on him and bullying him, just making fun of him. And my little lady, she stands up and she says, “You guys stop doing that.” Right? She takes a stand and she's courageous. She says, “Stop treating him that way. That's not the right thing.” And so they start mocking her, “What are you going to do? You're going to go tell the principal?” And she says, “Yes, I am.” So she takes a stand. That's courage. We need more Jordans who are twelve and Hanales that are eleven to take a stand and to move forward in their lives. Can they be courageous?
Do you know why, young people, we tell you the story of Noah? It's not so you can get to know all the animals. Okay. We tell you the story of Noah because it is a story about a man who decides to stand up and do the right thing, even though other people laugh at him. When we tell that story to our children, we need to tell them, we're telling you this story because you're going to get laughed at because you're not the same. You are different. Oh this is going to be hard for some, because some children just want to fit in. They want to be like everybody else. You can't fit in and be like everyone else if you're a citizen of the kingdom. You have to have the courage to say I'm different. You would think that would be easy in our society that's just tolerant with everybody who's different, right? But our society is tolerant about all kinds of things except for Christians. When you start saying, “Hey, this is what I believe,” they go, “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” and then there's this attack that often Christians are experiencing. It takes courage to say, “This is what I believe. This is the right thing.”
That's why we tell children the story of Daniel in the lion's den. Not because it's just an exciting story about animals. It's because it's a story about the government telling a person that they can't do spiritual things. You can't pray, you can't attend church, whatever they're going to tell them. Okay, what are you going to do when the government tells you to do something that you don't believe is right biblically? What are you going to do in that moment? We need more Daniels who are going to say, “Hey, look. I'm going to open my window and I'm going to pray anyway.” We just need more people who are going to be courageous nonconformists, if I get used that word. Nonconformists, not in the sense of being weird. I don't think we as Christians we want to be weird and try to justify our weirdness. But I think what we want to do is we want to take a stand for the kingdom principles, the policies that God has laid out for us here. That’s so important.
Notice it says there – don't be frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them. Sign to them. The word here is a validation. It's like a credential. It's like a badge that gets you into the into the event that you're going to. It's that credential that says yes, this is valid. And what is the credential that is being described? It's the courage. It's the courage you have that becomes this credential that says, “Yes, I can listen to you because of your courage.” People are looking today for people who are courageous, people are willing to take a stand in life instead of just going along with the crowd. There's a right way and there's a wrong way to do some things in life. Sometimes as Christians, we stand up and say, “I just want you to know, this is the right way.” There's a courage that we have that becomes our badge, that badge or a credential being described here. A clear sign (or credential) to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God,
Thus my travel illustration. A few weeks ago, John and I went to a children's pastors conference. I was speaking at the conference and I wanted John to go to the conference so he could learn some things with me. So we went out and traveled down there. We flew on an airplane from Newark Airport. I left my driver's license in the TSA basket when I left and went to Nashville. So there it is back in there. I didn't even realize it till I get to the rental car company in Nashville and I got my car reserved and they said, “Can we have your driver's license?” I'm looking through and I'm going, “Oh no. I left it back there in Newark.” Now I could talk all I want to these people, but they aren't going to listen to my sob story about where my license is. The answer is no, you cannot rent a car without a driver's license. That's what their answer was. Oh, I was so disappointed. Of course John had his driver's license. So he rented the car and we drove around using his license and not mine. The point is, I didn't have my credential.
If you're going to take a stand, when other people are telling you to sit down, the third leg of this stool is the courage which becomes your credential that says yes, I'm functioning here and (notice that last statement) and that from God. There's this credential from God that's demonstrated in your courage to say yes, there is a truth here that I'm going to share with you.
Well, let's go on to the last one. It's in verse 29. The fourth thing that we can do when we want to take a stand or God wants us to take a stand and other people are telling us to sit down has to do with a gift. Now I want to take that right from the Greek word again there in verse 29. For it has been granted. Now that word granted there is our word grace. It's one of the favorite words that we have in the whole Bible, right? This word grace. Because it's because of God's grace, we have salvation. It's because of God's grace we have spiritual gifts. That's why they're called grace gifts. It's because of God's grace that we have energy to live every day. It's God's grace that we have a beautiful, beautiful sunshine and beautiful barn to be in. I mean all of that is God's grace. And we love it. It's a gift. So he's saying – For it has been granted to you. So there's this gift.
So the fourth thing is receive the gift. That's your fourth thing. The first thing was keep your focus clear. The second thing was… What's the second thing? Be part of the team was the second thing, be courageous is the third thing, and this one is receive the gift. Okay, you got that? Are you ready to receive the gift? I don't know if you're going to want this gift.
It says – It has been granted to you (or gifted to you) that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. I think you're saying, “Okay, I don't want door number one. What's behind door number two.” Right? The idea of suffering isn't high on my list of a gift that I might receive. But God gives us suffering as part of the package because it forms that fourth leg of the stool. Suffering is this valuable thing, according to the Bible, that does things for us. First of all, James says be joyful when you experience various trials because the strengthening of your faith produces these things, perseverance and so on.
You know, I like the story of the old preacher and the young preacher. The young preacher comes to the older preacher and says, “Man, would you please pray for me. I just need more patience, more patience with these people.” So the old preacher prays, “Lord, I pray that you give this young preacher more trials and more problems in his life.” The young preacher says, “Well I don't need more problems and trials. I need patience.” And so the old preacher says, “Well here's what it says in the Bible. If you’re going to have patience then this is what you you're going to have. If you want more patience, you pray for that, you're going to have problems.” Just be careful about praying for patience. I'm not sure you're going to want what you get. Because it's the living with annoying people that helps build those things inside of your heart that God wants to strengthen inside of you. It's the working in an office where there's people who are irritating, or challenging, or just plain wicked, that do something to build something inside of us. It's this work that God is doing to build strength inside of our lives. Suffering does that.
Suffering also creates a window into our hearts. Because you know when we're suffering, other people are watching to see does this person really have faith? Does this person really believe what he says about living the Christian life? When you're suffering and you model what it means to live for Christ, then there's a window inside of the heart. This grace, this suffering becomes this gift, because it opens up this window that other people can see in. I think also the suffering produces a compassion for us as we look at other people and the struggles that they face in their lives. A compassion that we're just drawn to them and we want to help people who are suffering. When you go through suffering, it does something to you.
As you know, I train parenting coaches. Yesterday was the final day of my existing training that I'm doing. I trained a bunch of parenting coaches and so we're done. But every once in a while, someone comes to me and says, “Can I be involved in your coaching program? I don't have any children.” And my answer to that is, “Yes, you can. But here's something you need to remember. You must have compassion and humility for the people you're working with. Because otherwise, you're going to say, ‘Oh this is easy. This parenting thing is easy.’” The only people who say the parenting thing is easy as people who never had any kids. If you go through the suffering of having children, then you will learn compassion. You're not so quick to judge when you see somebody acting out in the grocery store and say, “Oh those are bad parents.” Because you know how difficult it is to parent children. Right? There's a suffering that you have to have that often creates this compassion in our hearts for other people.
Four legs of this package that are very important. Keep your focus clear, be part of the team, be courageous, and lastly this one about just receiving the gift of suffering. Those are your four pillars. You're going to want to keep those in place. Because they're going to help you to do the conclusion of the verses that Paul says here's why, here's how it all gets put together. Verse 30 – because I want you to be engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
Are you engaged in the conflict? Engaged in the conflict makes it sound really negative, but it is a challenge. Okay. Are you out there representing Christ? Are you doing what God wants you to do to be the person that God has called you to be? I think that's what he's saying here.
The word conflict is the word agone, you know, where we get our English word ‘agony’ from. I don't know that all conflict is agony. But that's the word in Greek that's translated conflict here. We're engaged in the conflict. Our focus isn't just on pleasure and comfort and entertainment. We have a mission-oriented view of life.
I invite you today to do what Paul says. Come on. Would you join me and be engaged in the conflict? Let's be engaged in reaching the community. Let's be engaged in growing spiritually. Let's be engaged in taking a stand when others want us to sit down.
I was reading some material this week about the redwood trees in Northern California. Did you know that they're the largest trees in the world? Largest trees in the world. There's one tree called the Chandelier Tree that is so big they have carved out a space that a car can drive through in the Redwood Forest. You can drive your car right through this tree it is so big. There's another tree called the Hyperion tree. They name these trees, because they've been around for so long they have names for each one. But the Hyperion tree is the tallest tree in the world, 380 feet tall. Now the fascinating thing about these trees is they don't have very deep roots. The roots only go about six to eight feet deep. You imagine a tree that's that big, about as wide as this stage. And at 380 feet tall, you'd imagine it would have really deep roots or a taproot or something but they don't. If a redwood tree were to stand by itself out in wherever it is, the wind would easily knock it over. But here's the thing about the tree's roots. They go out and they connect with other tree roots and they form a very solid base upon which to have these huge mammoth growth experiences.
Wow, what a picture of the church. It's such a beautiful thing. I commend you for being part of a church. Because when you're part of a church, you’re joining the team and saying, “Yes, I want to be connected to other people and I want to make a difference. I want to be engaged in the conflict. I want to be representing Christ.” And when you do, there's going to be some tension points because you're going to want to take a stand. You know, God wants you to do that. But at the same time, everybody else is saying sit down, sit down. What are you going to do? If you're eleven or twelve years old and you take action, we go, yes, that's being very brave. I think we can learn some things from these young ladies. And I think we in ourselves can be invited to the table and say, like Paul says, yes, I'm inviting you to be engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
So I invite you to be engaged in the conflict, and take a stand, and be courageous, and join the team, and keep your focus clear, and receive the gift. All of those things that God would have us in order to stand firm in the gospel.
Would you stand with me and let's pray together. Let's just take a moment, would you with me, and let's dedicate our hearts to the Lord. Whatever He wants. Lord, whatever you want, I'm yours. I want to serve you. I want to be the person you want me to be. Let's pray that together.
[PRAYER] Heavenly Father, we’re coming before you and laying our hearts out. Lord, sometimes we’re shy, sometimes we're afraid, sometimes we're intimidated. We know that we have the gospel and we shouldn't be intimidated because we have the truth. So I pray that you would empower us and strengthen us to take a stand, even when others want us to sit down. We want to honor you in everything that we do, Lord. We want to give ourselves to you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
