Title: The Gospel Is Juicy Good News”
Theme: The Gospel
Subject: Spreading the Gospel
Text: Phil. 2:19-24
Prop: Christians need to be enthusiastic about spreading God’s Word
INTRO: I was sitting in the kitchen with mom one fall afternoon, I would say it was around 5:00 or 5:30pm. She was working in the kitchen fixing supper when she looked in the refrigerator and found that she did have any eggs. She had gotten into what she was fixing and therefore had to find some eggs somewhere. We didn’t live in town; so going to town was out of the question. So she called the neighbor that lived behind us to ask if she could borrow some eggs. The neighbor said that she could, so, me being in the kitchen and all got the call to run to the neighbors to get the eggs.
Now let me tell you that I was around the age of 10 and carrying eggs was not something that I had done all too much. Anyway, you know how it gets dark early in the fall, like it has since we turned to clocks back. Well, it wasn’t completely dark yet and I was off to the neighbors to get the eggs.
We had around a five-acre pasture behind our house where we kept a few horses and a cow or two, so I had to cross the pasture to get to the neighbors house to get the eggs. Well I get to the neighbors house and when I got there we talked a little bit. In that little conversation one of their kids told me something that was really good. You know the kind of thing I mean, one of those really juicy things that you just can’t wait to tell someone. Well I couldn’t wait to get back home to tell my brother all about what I was told.
So I get the eggs and I take off running back home. Now the neighbor lady gave me a whole dozen eggs and now I’m running to get home so I could tell my brother all the new juicy information. I get to the fence and cross it like it wasn’t even there and I’m running back home across the field. Now if you go across that field from my neighbors, to my house, going across the pond bank is the fasted way there. So I’m running as fast as I can with the dozen eggs in my hand and as I’m going across the pond bank, all the sudden, in a split second in have no ground under my feet and I come to a very abrupt stop.
You see, dad just had the pond dug that summer and the pond bank was weak in one spot. When the pond got full earlier in the summer a spot in the pond bank broke and it left a little ravine. Now I knew about the little ravine, it had been there for a month or so, but it was dark and in my hurry to get home to tell my brother this juicy new news I had I forgot all about it. Now I was laying at the bottom of this little ravine in pain and hoping that I hadn’t broken all my mom eggs. I can’t see the eggs because of the dark or see even how I looked. So I get myself out of the little ravine in the pond bank and hurried as fast as I could back home. It’s a given that it was a little slower than before the pond bank, because now I was worried about what mom would say. And I was in some pain.
Well I get home, walked in the back door and mom knew immediately that there was a problem. You see I was covered with dirt and egg. I told her what happened and to both of our amazements there were still enough eggs to continue cooking supper.
Now when I went over to the neighbors I wasn’t in all that much of a hurry to get there. It was just getting dark and I had to cross a field that had a few horses and cows in it. If you ever walking in a field with cows and horses in it you know you have to watch your step or you might end up with stinky feet when you get back home. But when I was coming back I had some news that I just couldn’t wait to tell my brother and I didn’t worry about stepping in something and I forgot about the condition of the pond bank.
We get that way at times don’t we, when we have something really good to tell others. We tend to forget about things because we’re excited to tell the juicy new news we have just found out.
Don’t we do the very same thing when we hear about something that is going on in people lives? You go up to the café and talk with all the other farmers and sometimes you can’t wait until you get home to tell your wife about what’s going on here or there. Or we go to a meeting or meet someone in the store and find out something really good that’s going on, some really juicy news and you can’t wait to get home to tell your husband and make a few phone calls to your other friends.
How about when you were dating your boyfriend or girlfriend and they popped the question of marriage. You just couldn’t wait to tell your friends and parents all about it, could you? When I asked Maria to marry me I did it the old fashion way. I first went to her dad. He was back in his bedroom watching TV. I went and knocked on his door and he told me to come in. I went up to him and said, “sir” he said “yes” and then I asked him if I could have his daughter’s hand in marriage. He said that I could and told me good luck. Then I couldn’t wait for just that right moment to ask her.
How about when you have your first child or any child for that matter. You get all the pictures you can of it and those pictures burn holes in your pocket. You just have to get them out and show everybody you know your new baby. This I think is especially true of the grandparents and of the 1st child for the parents. You can tell it in the pictures that your parents have. You know what I mean if you are a second or third child don’t you.
When I go through some old picture albums that my mom had and that my grandparents have all I see is my brother Troy. He has page after page devoted to him and I’m stuck on the back in a page with one or two pictures on it.
We sure get excited when we have that new news to tell, don’t we, and we tend to forget about things and disregard things that we think are important. Things like forgetting about little ravines in pond banks and not watching your step when crossing fields.
You know that’s the way God wants us to be with His Gospel. He wants His Gospel to be the number one thing on our minds all the time. You see God put some pretty juicy information in His Gospel. Things like God loves you so much that He gave His only begotten Son, and God loves you so much that He sent His own Son to die on the cross for you and everybody around you. Not only that but after His Son died on the cross and laid in a tomb for 3 days He rose back to life again. And things like now how Jesus sits at the right hand of God and watches over us and intercedes for us each and everyday. And things like I will never leave you or forsake you.
There’s some pretty juicy information in there isn’t there. The information is meant to excite you, it is meant make you forget about all the other things in the world and to put spreading His Gospel first in your life. It is meant to send you rushing off to your family and friends telling them of the juicy good news of the Gospel. (Prop.) You see “Christians need to be enthusiastic about spreading God’s Word”
Now maybe your thinking, yeah I was enthusiastic about spreading it at one time in my life and it was new news to me at one point in my life, but it’s not new news to me anymore. Besides that I’m not the preacher, I’m not the one in charge of spreading the Gospel. But you see you are the one in charge of spreading the Gospel, you have been commissioned by Jesus to do so, for He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.
We all are in charge to spreading the Gospel and we all need to do it with enthusiasm. Remember when you first became a Christian and how the Gospel made such a difference in your life. We still have that juicy new news to spread, but how do we keep that excitement alive as we go and as we grow in our Christian lives.
That is something that Paul encouraged us to do. He wanted us to keep the excitement of the Gospel alive. He wanted to find someone that he could instill the excitement that he had into. When came across Timothy he found that person. He was the only one person that took interest in the welfare of the people as Paul did. He had found the one person that was as excited about the Gospel as he was. In the book of Philippians we find Timothy and Paul working together in their endeavors. Paul is in prison and he is sending Timothy to help in his work.
I think from this passage we can find some things that will help us keep the excitement of the Gospel alive in our Christian walk. (Read Phil. 2:19-24)
I. WE NEED TO TAKE GENUINE INTEREST IN THE WELFARE OF OTHERS
You see in this passage that Timothy was the only one that took an interest in the welfare of others as Paul did. We too need to take a genuine interest in the welfare of others.
It’s hard to do sometimes don’t you think to care about other people when we don’t know about what is going on in their lives. We need to get involved in people’s lives. That’s something that’s not to hard to do in a church setting. Where you come to church every week and we see the same people almost every week. We come to church and we take prayer request and tell people what is going on in our lives. We talk about our lives before and after church and in Sunday school classes. And then we have people who come to us with genuine concern about what is going. They want to help with our problems, whatever they may be. We send cards of encouragement; sometimes send food to the people’s house to help them in difficult situations as you all did for my family and I when Maria was sick and in the hospital. It’s not too hard to involved in other Christian’s lives is it. And it is expected of us to do so.
Now what about in the context of the non-Christian? Its a little bit harder to get involved in a non-Christian’s life isn’t it? With Christian’s it’s easy, we see them every week and they are more open with their concerns. But with non-Christians we don’t talk about our concerns and worries in life so much, do we? We see them and we talk about the weather and about what’s going on in the world today. We can find so many things to talk about that the real issues of life don’t come up very often.
When they do come up it’s normally only after it’s a big thing happens. We hear about the results of what has been going on in their life after the fact. We need to take an interest in their life before things blow up and try to help them.
Another reason it’s hard to get involved in the non-Christian’s life is because we’re not often where they are. You see they go to places where Christians won’t. We think that if we go in some of those places that it will look bad and would be a bad witness. Well I must say that in some cases it would be. We certainly wouldn’t go into a place where there’s no way not to view bad things or be involved in something that is sin. But we can go into places where non-Christian’s are and not do what their doing. We can go to those places and talk with them, sit there, drink a soda, eat a hamburger, play a game of pool with them. Try to become involved in their life at the same time keeping your witness for Christ strong.
People think when they see another Christian going to places where non-Christians go that that Christian is slipping in their Christian walk. You know that may be true. But you also know that if you are involved in that other Christian’s life you’ll know they are slipping long before you see them doing that. Maybe if you have enough genuine interest in their life you’ll talk with them and help them before they get to the point of slipping too far in the walk with Christ.
But if you see another Christian going into a place like that don’t condemn them right off. They may be going there because they want to see they Gospel spread to them. They may be going there because they are excited about the Gospel and because they want to get involved in the lives of non-Christians so they’ll have that opportunity to share Christ with them.
We need to remember and take the example of Christ. Mt. 9:11-12 says, “When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” You see Jesus was getting involved in the non-Christian’s life so that He could minister to them.
SUM. So part of the way we keep the enthusiasm in our life about spreading the Gospel is to keep involved in people’s lives who are Christian and especially non-Christians giving us opportunity to spread the Gospel.
II. WE NEED TO KEEP OUR INTEREST IN CHRIST, MORE THAN THAT OF THE WORLD
The second way to keep our enthusiasm about spreading the Gospel is found in verse 21 of our text. It says something along the lines of; we need to keep our interest in Christ, more than our interest is of the world.
ILLUS: Take the classic example of Peter in Mt. chapter 14. Remember after Jesus fed the 5,000 he told His disciples to go to the other side of the lake while He stayed and dismissed the crowd. So Peter and the other disciples headed on out and when they were in the 4th watch of the night and the winds were blowing and the waves were pounding on the boat, they saw Jesus walking on the water. Oh at first they didn’t know it was Jesus, they thought it was a ghost. Jesus told them not to be afraid that it was Him and Peter said if it is you Lord command me to come to you on the water. Jesus commanded and Peter was walking on the water. What an exciting thing that must have been for Peter to do, getting out of the boat and actually walk on the water. Now notice that as long as he was keeping his eyes on Jesus and going to Jesus he was able to stay on top of the water. But as soon as noticed the winds and the waves around him he began to sink.
I’m sure that Peter’s enthusiasm and excitement for Christ was at a peak when he was walking on the water, but I’m also sure that fear took over him when he began to sink.
Folks when we allow the world to take over in our lives. When we allow the things of this world to become more interesting to us than Christ is, then fear for spreading God’s Word takes us over as well. Christ must be first and everything else second. It’s hard at times though isn’t it? Our focus becomes so involved in taking care of everyday business, in paying the bills, feeding our families, making sure we enough money to for the kids education in the future, in making sure we have enough to live on when we retire. Those things we can see and we can plan on and it’s hard sometimes when going about our everyday lives to see Christ through all of that.
That’s why it’s so important that we take time each and everyday to read God’s Word, and to take time to pray. You see without taking that time each day, Jesus will become less and less important to us and the things of this world will take over. When the things of this world take over then the fear of our spreading the Gospel takes over as well.
SUM. So in order to keep enthusiastic about spreading the Gospel we must put the interest of Christ above our interest in the world.
III. BE CONFIDENT IN THE LORD
Now verse 24 of our text tells us that Paul is confident in the Lord. And that’s the third thing we need in keeping enthusiastic about spreading the Gospel. We need to be confident in the Lord.
Confidence in the Lord is something that takes time. It’s not something that comes to you as soon as you become a Christian. Well, at least not for every Christian. Some have confidence in the Lord from day one, because of the circumstances behind them becoming a Christian. Yes, we should have confidence in the Lord from the day we become a Christian and when we become a Christian we do have confidence in the promises of God. That we will go to heaven because of what Christ did for us on the cross. But we are talking about a different kind of confidence here.
IILUS: Remember Moses. He was a man that trusted God and lived by the ordinances of God, he was confident that God would take care of him. But what happened when God asked him to deliver His people out of Egypt. Moses argued with God saying that he wasn’t able to do that, he said in Ex. 3:11, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Moses was a man that had confidence in God, but he didn’t have confidence in what he could do for God.
Now Paul, in the context of our text was a man that trusted in God to bring him out of the situation he was in, but he also was a man that was confident in his ability through Christ. Paul was confident in every aspect of God. Moses on the other hand was a man that was confident only in the fact that God would take care of him, at least in this time in his life. And he thinks that God can’t use him, especially in the place where he grew up. But what is the very next thing God said after Moses argues with Him and says “Who am I, that I should go.” God says, “I will be with you.” God was with Moses wasn’t he and we all know of the mighty miracles that God did through Moses. His confidence grew as he did more and more for God. At first Moses said he couldn’t speak well and God appointed Aaron to be his mouthpiece, but in the end Moses was the one doing all the speaking.
You see it takes time in some of our lives to build confidence in the Lord. But the only way that confidence can build is by us putting our trust in God to help us in our service to Him. God is with us at all times in our Christian walk. We need to step out of our comfort zones and into our trusting zones, which is in Christ Jesus. Because so many don’t that (put their trust in Christ, that He will help them in service to Him) is why I believe so many Christians remain baby Christians all their life.
SUM. Jesus gave us a command in the Great Commission, to go and spread His Gospel. Much as the same way God gave the command to Moses to free His people. And just as God told Moses, “I will be with you.” Jesus told us, Mt. 28:20, “….And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” So Jesus will work by our side, day in and day out, in whatever it takes to spread His Gospel. All the time working beside you, building up your confidence in your ability to serve Him in the work He set out for you to do.
So being confident in the Lord is another way to keep your enthusiasm in spreading the Gospel.
CONCLUSION: We need to be enthusiastic in spreading the Gospel. I have run through some guidelines to help us in keeping the Gospel fresh to us and some things to do to keep our enthusiasm up for our work the Lord as He has set out for us to do.
We have some juicy good news to spread. Christ died on the cross and rose again and because of that the whole world can have eternal life through Him. That is so juicy of news that it should be flowing out of us everywhere we go. What a wonderful God we have to give us His Son and to give us the ultimate job of spreading the good news about Him.
