INTRO.- ILL.- A small church in the hills of Tennessee struck oil on its parking lot. It was a gusher and money was coming in so fast that the finance committee didn’t know what to do with it.
The committee called a special congregational meeting of the 40 church members asked them what to do with all the money. Deacon Brown said, "I move that we divide all the money among our 40 members, and I FURTHER MOVE THAT WE DON’T TAKE IN ANY NEW MEMBERS!"
What’s your cause? Making money. This is a real cause for some people.
ILL.- Perhaps you noticed this last week where actor Charles Bronson passed away at the age of 81. He was raised as a poor boy in Pennsylvania, the son of a coal miner, the 11th of 15th children.
Bronson said, "you had nothing to lose because you lost it already." His family, the Bunchinskys lived crowded in a shack, the children wearing hand-me-downs from older siblings. At the age of 6, Charles was embarrassed to attend school in his sister’s dress. Who wouldn’t be embarrassed to do such?!
His father died when he was 10, and at 16 he followed his brothers into the mines. He might have stayed in the mines for the rest of his life except for World War II. Having seen the outside world, he vowed not to return to his hometown.
He was attracted to acting not because of any artistic urge; he was impressed by the money movie stars could earn. His films had: lots of action, shooting, and dead bodies.
They were made on medium-size budgets, but Bronson was earning $1 million a picture before it was fashionable.
I admire Charles Bronson’s hard work to overcome adversity in life, but not his desire to make a lot of money.
I Tim. 6:9 "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.”
There is nothing wrong with making money or having money, as long as money doesn’t have you. As long as it doesn’t dominate a person’s life. It’s not a good cause. It’s certainly not a lasting cause, not an eternal cause.
Matt. 16:26 "What good will it for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"
Nearly everyone has some kind of cause, which they believe in and/or promote: making money, sports, hobbies, politics, etc.
ILL.- This past Labor Day weekend some people witnessed the Jerry Lewis telethon for MD. That Telethon received a record $60.5 million in nationwide pledges.
Lewis said, "I’m consistently humbled by the generosity of the American public. Every year I ask, and without blinking, you open your hearts and wallets."
MD is his cause! And it’s a good cause! It’s a good cause, because he is trying to do something for suffering people.
Do I think what Jerry Lewis has done for MD is going to get him into heaven? No, but he probably does and so do a lot of other people. I think any time someone devotes their time, money and energy to helping suffering humanity; it’s a great cause! But it’s not an entryway into heaven.
Eph. 2:8-10 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
We don’t do good things for others in order to be saved, but because we are saved. We are saved by the grace and graciousness of God in Christ. And God’s gives us the grace to be able to do good in life.
Jerry Lewis has a good cause, but he also needs Jesus Christ as His savior!
ILL.- Talk about a cause for good! Listen to this. Dateline NBC aired a story last Wednesday night, Sept. 3rd, entitled, "Remembering a Family." Bruce Murakami’s wife, Cindy, and daughter, Chelsea, were killed on Nov. 16, 1998, when a 19-year-old man who had been drag racing at 90 mph hit their van broadside and it burst into flames.
The young man who killed the wife and daughter is Justin Caberzas was eventually charged with two counts of vehicular homicide and carried a sentence of 30 years in prison.
Bruce Murakami asked to meet Justin, face-to-face, with no lawyers present to see what he would say. The young man broke down and said, "I’m sorry."
Remarkably, miraculously, Bruce Murakami forgave that young man. HARD TO BELIEVE, BUT TRUE!
Bruce Murakami asked the judge not to send Justin Cabezas to prison.
Instead, the judge sentenced him to two years of probation and 300 hours of community service, with time at a program designed to discourage reckless driving among youths. He also ordered his license revoked.
Now twice a month both Bruce and Justin go to high schools to share their story with the hopes that more young people will realize the destructiveness of speeding.
Brothers and sisters, Bruce Murakami’s story is the story of grace. And his cause is that of teaching young people the dangers of speeding and the grace of forgiveness! WHAT A TREMENDOUS CAUSE HE HAS! And believe it or not, his cause is our cause, because it’s based on the gospel of Jesus Christ! The gospel is all about forgiveness…the forgiveness of God and the forgiveness of man. WHAT A CAUSE!
We need to do whatever we can to advance our cause, the cause of Christ on earth.
PROP.- What is it going to take to advance our cause, the gospel of Jesus Christ? I see several things that are required.
1- Opposition
2- Encouragement
3- Preaching
I. OPPOSITION
V. 12-13 "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ."
Paul’s opposition in the form of imprisonment actually advanced the gospel of Christ. God can use the opposition to advance His cause. Instead of hindering the gospel, it helped the gospel.
ILL.- After receiving a nasty letter in the mail, the preacher sent it back to one of his members with this note: "The enclosed letter arrived on my desk a few days ago. I am sending it to you because I thought you should know that some idiot is sending out letters over your signature..."
I’ve never received a nasty letter in the mail from a church member and I BETTER NEVER RECEIVE ONE! The sad truth is that some times church people get at odds with one another or at opposition with one another and there is really no good reason for it!
Church fighting in any form is a no, no, but we can expect some opposition from the outside world. However, this opposition doesn’t hinder the work of the gospel.
Ps. 23:5 "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies..." God provides for us in the face of opposition.
Not only does God provide for us in the face of opposition, He can also cause His cause to flourish and grow!
ILL.- You’ve heard it said that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. There’s some real truth in that statement.
ILL.- Paul and Silas were thrown into jail for preaching the gospel, but that didn’t stop them and it didn’t stop the gospel.
Acts 16:25 "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, AND THE OTHER PRISONERS WERE LISTENING TO THEM."
Even though their circumstances were not the best, they still continued to trust God, walk by faith, and witness. Paul and Silas did not let the opposition get them down.
ILL.- When I first considered running a marathon one well-meaning lady in a church tried to talk me out of it.
The only problem was, she wasn’t nice about it. She said something like, "Are you crazy or what?"
Did I run that marathon? YOU BET and 13 more of them!
Many times when we are opposed it only serves to spur us on to greater work and victory. Like, "Don’t tell me I can’t do it..."
ILL.- Someone said, “The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist, however, sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
ILL.- A friend asked Lloyd George, British Prime Minister, during WWI, “How do you manager to keep fit (sane) under all this work and worry?” George replied, “Oh, with me a change of trouble is as good as a vacation.” Good way to look at it.
ILL.- When a friend asked Sir Douglas Haig, British commander, during a particularly trying period of WWI if he was discouraged and he replied, “Discouraged! A Christian man has no right to be discouraged in the same world as God!” That’s the spirit!
Brothers and sisters, don’t sweat the opposition. Mow it down. Go over it! Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world! Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war!
Opposition is sometimes good. It can often make us work harder and do more for the cause of Christ.
II. ENCOURAGEMENT
V. 14 “Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.”
I Thess. 5:11 “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
Heb. 10:25 “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
We are supposed to be in the encouragement business, that is, encouraging one another in life and especially, in the faith of Christ.
ILL.- The Duke of Wellington, the British military leader who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, was not an easy man to serve under. He was brilliant, demanding, and not one to shower his subordinates with compliments. Yet even Wellington realized that his methods left something to be desired.
In his old age a young lady asked him what, if anything, he would do differently if he had his life to live over again. Wellington thought for a moment, then replied. "I’d give more praise.”
The sad truth is this: we discourage people more than we encourage them in life. We criticize more than we commend.
We all need more encouragement in life!
ILL.- One man said, “One morning I opened the door to get the newspaper and was surprised to see a strange little dog with our paper in his mouth. Delighted with this unexpected ‘delivery service,’ I fed him some treats.
“The following morning I was horrified to see the same dog sitting in front of our door, wagging his tail, surrounded by eight newspapers. I spent the rest of that morning returning the papers to their owners.” See what you get when you encourage others? At least, the dog meant well. And so did the man.
Paul said, “Because of my chains, most of the brothers have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously…”
Perseverance through hardship often inspires us.
ILL.- A man by the name of Elmer (we’ll call him) lived on a low-income salary. He and his wife raised two children and gave them a good education. The entire family followed Elmer’s devotion to Christ. They were responsible for several people becoming Christians.
Elmer lived for Christ in spite of pain and disappointment. He and his wife lost a third child when she was only three. He suffered a massive heart attack from which the doctors said he would never recover. Inadequate health insurance left him with thousands of dollars in bills, but he did eventually recover and go back to work.
In spite of his health problems and the financial strain, he took in a nephew whose family had kicked him out after serious problems with the law.
Then, some years after his heart attack, he was found to have cancer. Although he suffered tremendously in the last few weeks of his life, it was said that nobody ever heard him complain. (Sounds like another Elmer we know.)
When Elmer died he left a mortgaged house, a pile of medical bills, but also a rich spiritual legacy to all who knew him.
Thank God for all the Elmer’s of the world who walk by faith in spite of difficulties, wheelchairs and all. WHAT A SOURCE OF ENCOURAGEMENT THEY ARE!
May God give us the grace to be the same, to do the same. By encouraging one another, the church will grow, the cause will advance.
III. PREACHING
V. 15, 18 “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.” “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.”
ILL.- The minister preached a message about Jonah. After the service, a woman said, “I was thrilled with your message.” She turned to her boy and said, “Didn’t you enjoy the Pastor’s sermon about Jonah and the whale?”
“I guess so,” the boy said, “But I feel just like that whale. All that preaching is given me a bellyache.”
ILL.- The Indian in Arizona heard his first Christian sermon. Asked for his opinion, he said, “Big wind, loud thunder, no rain.”
Paul said, “The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached…”
Good, bad or otherwise, if Christ is preached some good can come from it.
ILL.- D. L. Moody (1837-1899) was an American evangelist who founded the Northfield Schools in Massachusetts, Moody Church and the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.
Moody’s first city-wide crusade in America was in Brooklyn beginning October 31, 1875, at the Clermont Avenue Rink, seating 7,000. Only non-church members could get admission tickets as 12,000 to 20,000 crowds were turned away. Over 2,000 converts resulted.
Next came Philadelphia starting on November 21 with nightly crowds of 12,000. The Philadelphia crusade was held at the unused Pennsylvania freight depot.
On January 19, 1876 President Grant and some of his cabinet attended. Total attendance was 1,050,000 with 4,000 decisions for Christ. (that crusade went from November to January)
Next it was the New York crusade running from February 7 to April 19, 1876. The meetings were held in the Great Roman Hippodrome on Madison Avenue, where the Madison Square Gardens now stands. Two large halls gave a combined seating attendance of 15,000. Moody had just turned 39 for this crusade. Some 6,000 decisions came as a result of his ten-week crusade. Three to five services a day were held with crowds up to 60,000 daily.
Brothers and sisters, do you get the idea that D. L. Moody knew what he was doing and that he did something right? Why is it that they had such tremendous crowds and a great amount of decisions for Christ back then, but not today?
Several reasons could be cited. They were better preachers. More serious. More Bible-centered. More decision-oriented. The people were hungrier for spiritual things more than people today.
People in our world today are distracted from the gospel and attracted to the things of the world! And there is so much going on in our world that is fascinating, interesting, and exciting. And it’s to the point that the gospel doesn’t seem to interest people much anymore.
But…preaching still gets the job done! Preaching is God-ordained and will still work! If we work hard at it, it will work. God will bless our efforts! Please pray that God will bless our efforts at Jonesboro Christian Church and bless all preaching of the gospel!
CONCLUSION------------------------------------
ILL.- John Gossip of England, said, “Years ago in Glasgow, Scotland, I was hurrying to a church meeting one Sunday morning and noticed what was then a peculiar sight. The pavements were chalked at intervals with invitations to a hall.
“I stopped a policeman and asked what they meant. He said, ‘These people are socialists and since very early this morning they have been out, inviting the whole universe to a little place that will hold scarcely anyone. Believe me, I disagree with them, but men so much in earnest as they are, are sure one day to sweep the city. What can hold them back? What can keep them down?’
“And then he added, ‘Why are you Christians not out and at it too? You have a cause that is far better and more glorious. If you would work as hard as these men do for their cause, you would sweep the world!’”
Brothers and sisters, we do have the greatest cause in the world and we need to do all we can to advance this cause, the gospel of Jesus Christ!
