INTRO.- The word “if” is a big, little word. It’s a little word, but can carry a big meaning.
ILL.- After visiting with my 1962 classmate, Larry Roberts from Doniphan, MO, I thought, “If only I had worked for General Motors like he did, I could be retired now.”
I think most of us have said something like that. “If only I had taken that job instead of the other one. Just think how much better off I would be now. Think of the money I would have made, been more successful, etc.”
There are many “ifs” that enter the picture of our lives.
ILL.- After rolling my 1982 Plymouth Horizon in southern Missouri many years ago, I thought, “If I hadn’t bought this car this wouldn’t have happened to me!” Of course, others might have said, “If you hadn’t been driving so fast that wouldn’t have happened to you.”
I do tend to drive fast, but I really wasn’t driving fast that day. It was a bad road with bad conditions and a bad car, a top-heavy car that was susceptible to rolling. There was also gravel on that curve in the highway, which helped me to wreck and roll my car.
I’m sure we’ve all probably made some bad decisions when it came to buying cars or something else.
ILL.- Or there may have been times when we’ve said something like, “If I hadn’t run with that kid I would never have gotten into trouble.” And there’s some real Bible truth to that statement.
Prov. 13:20 “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.”
ILL.- Famed pianist Arthur Rubinstein, celebrating his 84th birthday, said: "As long as we have what we have inside, the capacity to love, to work, to hear music, to see a flower, to look at the world as it is, nothing can stop us from being happy....but one thing you must take seriously. You must get rid of the ‘ifs’ of life. Many people tell you, ’I would be happy -- if I had a certain job, or if I were better looking, or if a certain person would marry me.’ There isn’t any such thing. You must live your life unconditionally, without the ifs."
All of us have our lists of “ifs,” but with the Lord’s help anything negative can be overcome.
Eph. 3:16 “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”
We are promised that God’s Spirit will strengthen our inner being or our spirit in a powerful way. Greater is He who is in us that he who is in the world. Greater is God’s Spirit who lives within us. He is able to empower us in order to overcome any negative “ifs” in our lives.
In our text, Paul speaks of several positive “ifs.” In fact, four big ifs.
PROP.- These positive “ifs” come with a concluding thought. God says “if” certain positive things are in our lives then some positive actions must take place.
1- The big ifs
2- The big thens
I. THE BIG IFS
V. 1 “If you have any encouragement…if any comfort…if any fellowship…if any tenderness…”
1- If you have any encouragement in Christ
ILL.- Everyone needs recognition for their accomplishments (small or large), but few people make the need known as clearly as the little boy who said to his father: "Let’s play darts. I’ll throw and you say ’Wonderful!’"
It is true that everybody needs encouragement in life, but we don’t always get it from people. Why not? I assume that we don’t get it because we don’t give it.
Encouragement is something everyone needs in order to function and function even better. Criticism makes some people work better and harder, but encouragement does more good in the long run.
ILL.- During quail season in Georgia, an Atlanta journalist met an old farmer hunting with an ancient pointer at his side. Twice the dog ran ahead and pointed. Twice his master fired into the open air.
When the journalist saw no birds rise, he asked the farmer for an explanation. "Shucks," grinned the old man, "I knew there weren’t no birds in that grass.
“Spot’s nose ain’t what it used to be but him and me have had some wonderful times together. He’s still doing the best he can -- and it’d be mighty mean of me to call him a liar at this stage of the game!"
Brothers and sisters, I think we all should try a lot harder to give encouragement to one another in life. We need to dish out the good stuff, the positive stuff rather than the negative. We need to start looking at the positive things people do and encourage them and/or commend them for it.
ILL.- William Ward said, “Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you.”
2- If you have any comfort from his love
ILL.- Once during Queen Victoria’s reign, she heard that the wife of a common laborer had lost her baby. Having experienced deep sorrow herself, she felt moved to express her sympathy. So she called on the bereaved woman one day and spent some time with her. After she left, the neighbors asked what the queen had said. "Nothing," replied the grieving mother. "She simply put her hands on mine, and we silently wept together."
Have you ever had anything like that ever happen to you? Perhaps you lost a loved one in death and someone came to be with you. They never said a word. They just hugged you, held your hand, and wept with you.
Sometimes our actions do speak louder than our words.
All of us need comfort from His love, from the Lord’s love and we generally get it through His people.
II Cor. 1:3-4 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”
Keep your eyes open and especially, your spiritual eyes. We are given many opportunities to demonstrate the comfort of Christ. Hurting people need the comfort of Christ, which comes through us.
3- If you have any fellowship with the Spirit
ILL.- It was said that when Ronald Reagan met with Speaker “Tip” O’Neill shortly after becoming President, O’Neill told him that although they belonged to different parties he looked forward to working with him. He went on to remind him that he was on good terms with the Republican leadership in the House and that despite their disagreements they were always friends after five o’clock and on weekends. After that, President Reagan often began telephone conversations with the Speaker by saying: “Hello, Tip, is it now six o’clock?”
There has always been some division between Republicans and democrats, but both have to learn to work together and come to some agreement if they are ever to accomplish any good for America. This holds true for any kind of relationship among groups of people or individuals. There must be a decent fellowship in order to accomplish some good.
ILL.- A little boy asked his mother if he could go out and play with Timmy. “You know you don’t like Timmy,” his mother said. “All right,” replied the youngster, “then can I go out and fight with him?”
We all need to learn to play with one another rather than fight with one another. And this really holds true when it comes to God’s Spirit.
There are times when we are at odds with the Holy Spirit when we should be even with Him. We should be in step with Him, His will and His leading.
Gal. 5:16-17 “So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other….”
In order to have fellowship with God’s Spirit we must not fight with Him. We must yield to Him. We must listen to Him. We must learn from Him. We must allow Him to control us instead of us trying to control our own lives. HOLY SPIRIT CONTROL IS ALWAYS THE BEST CONTROL. His control leads to sweet fellowship.
4- If you have any tenderness and compassion
ILL.- The NEWSWEEK article stated, first there were the tears in 1997. More than a million wept. The guests cried inside the vast church, and the crowds sobbed outside: they had all been touched, in one way or another, by the life of a woman who struggled with her own emotional problems even as she reached out to the victims of homelessness, AIDS, cancer and land mines.
“Diana (Princess Di) profoundly influenced this nation and the world,” the dean of Westminster, the Rev. Dr. Wesley Carr, solemnly said to the congregation. “Although a princess, she was someone for whom, from afar, we dared to feel affection, and by whom we were all intrigued.”
Certainly one positive thing that could be said of Princess Diana was that she apparently had a heart for hurting people; tenderness and compassion, which is something we all need more of.
It’s something we don’t always see in our world today, but it’s certainly needed. We need role models of compassion and we need to become role models of this Christ-like virtue.
Matt. 9:35-36 “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. WHEN HE SAW THE CROWDS, HE HAD COMPASSION ON THEM, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
We all need the compassion of Jesus.
II. THE BIG THENS
Vs. 2-4
V. 1 “If you have any encouragement…if any comfort…if any fellowship…if any tenderness…”
Paul is saying that “if” we have these things in us or have a heart for encouragement, comfort, fellowship, tenderness, etc. then we will do certain positive things in life.
1- Then be like-minded
ILL.- Some years ago, the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, MO made public 1,300 letters that the late President wrote to his wife, Bess, over the course of a half-century. Harry Truman had a lifelong rule of writing to his wife every day they were apart. He followed this rule whenever he was away on official business or whenever Bess left Washington to visit her beloved Independence.
Scholars have examined the letters for any new light they may throw on political and diplomatic history. For most people, however, the impressive fact is that every day he was away, the President of the United States took time out from his dealing with the world’s most powerful leaders to sit down and write a letter to his wife.
What does Harry Truman’s actions mean to us? They may well indicate that he and his wife, Bess, were very close to one another. They were linked together in mind and spirit.
I am sure their thinking ran along the same lines, as is often the case with people who have been married a long time.
ILL.- A. W. Tozer said, “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be...”
We, too, will begin to think alike or be like-minded as our hearts and spirits are in tune with Christ. Only as Christ is our “tuning fork” will we be like-minded.
2- Then be one in spirit and purpose
ILL.- Last Wednesday evening on Larry King Live former first lady, Barbara Bush, was interviewed. Here is some of that interview.
KING: Is yours still a love affair?
BUSH: I don’t know about him, but I sure love him. I think he’s the greatest man I ever knew. I wake up every single morning and look over at that funny old face and say, I’m the luckiest woman in the world.
KING: Have you had major arguments?
BUSH: No. We don’t agree on everything, but we’ve learned after 58 years no point in -- I’m stubborn.
KING: Did you always express your opinions to him? I mean, you didn’t go public when you disagreed with him in the political area.
BUSH: I didn’t disagree with him that much, but uh-huh.
What a wonderful attitude she has! I would say that both George and Barbara have strong wills or strong convictions about life, but they have come together and learned to have one spirit and purpose in life. AND THAT IS SUCH A BLESSING TO SEE IN THEM. And what a great witness to such a divided world in which we live.
3- Then be humble
V. 3 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” What a powerful scripture!
ILL.- An admirer once asked Leonard Bernstein, celebrated orchestra conductor, what was the hardest instrument to play. He replied without hesitation: “Second fiddle. I can always get plenty of first violinists, but to find one who plays second violin with as much enthusiasm, or second French horn or second flute, now that’s a problem. And yet if no one plays second, we have no harmony.”
Second fiddle is sometimes a hard place to fill. We all have within us that desire to be noticed, to be appreciated, to be praised. Self often rules in our lives. However, if the heart of Christ is within us and the Spirit is at work in our lives we will work at humbling ourselves before God and man.
We will think more in terms of others or of the whole instead of ourselves. We will actually begin to see the goodness and the greatness in others. We will think, “Wow! He’s a better man than I am!” Or “She’s a better woman than I am!” And truly mean it.
4- Then be interested in others
V. 4 “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
ILL.- A man said, “After driving up and down several lanes, I finally found a parking spot at the shopping mall. I noticed another man driving very slowly in the same direction and, since he was closer, I gave him the ‘Are you going to park there?’ look.
“His responding gestures were very complicated—First he shook his head.
”Next he pointed at me, then at the parking space and then at himself, his watch and the mall. Finishing off, he frowned, raised his palms upward and shrugged.
‘Once parked, I walked over to the driver to make sure he didn’t want the space. ‘You must be single,’ he replied. ‘If you were married, you would’ve known that was the universal sign for ‘Go ahead and take the spot. I’m waiting for my wife.’”
Married or not, we should look not only to our interests, but also to the interests of others. As servants of Christ, we must also become servants of one another. We must look for opportunities to serve one another in love, do things for one another in life.
The Lord Jesus was a servant others and His Spirit will motivate to be the same and do the same.
Gal. 6:9-10 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
CONCLUSION--------------------------------------
ILL.- Arnold Schwarzenegger embodies the American dream. Coming to America at the age of 21 with $20 in his pocket, his determination allowed him to reach one goal after another. Arnold could never be the man he is today had he not come to America. America made him a bigger and better man. AND SO IT IS WITH CHRIST. Had we never come into the presence of Christ we would not be the bigger and better people we are. Christ’s influence makes us into better people, loving people, compassionate people, selfless people, serving people. If we have been touched by Christ we can’t help but be different and better people.
