INTRO.- ILL.- Some wit said the seven ages of man are: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills, wills.
Most of us experience some of those, if not all of them. We especially don’t like the bills, the ills, and the pills. And maybe the wills! We probably prefer the thrills over anything else in life.
ILL.- Cecil Beaton took pictures of Queen Mother Elizabeth on her 50th birthday. In an extravagance of tact, Beaton sent her proofs so retouched that not a wrinkle showed. Her secretary returned them with a polite note that said in effect: “Her Majesty feels that, having weathered 50 years of life on earth, she would not like her photographs to suggest that she has come through completely unscathed.”
The truth is: no one goes through life unscathed or unwrinkled or unhurt, etc. We all experience certain negative things. It would be nice if we didn’t, but we do.
ILL.- Leroy Lawson is the great preacher and past president of Hope International University in Fullerton, CA. He retired from that position in July, 2003. During that time he was also the Sr. Minister of the Central Christian Church of Mesa, AZ. Leroy is a great preacher and a gifted writer. Did you hear him speak or read any of his books? You might get the impression that nothing negative ever happened to him in life. WRONG. Some years ago Leroy and his wife lost a son to suicide. I heard Leroy speak at the North American Christian Convention after losing his son and you could see, feel, and hear the pain of his loss.
NO ONE GOES THROUGH LIFE UNSCATHED.
ILL.- Boyce Mouton is the longtime preacher of the First Christian Church of Carl Junction, MO, near Joplin. Boyce is 67 years old. He and his wife Betty have five grown children. Boyce was the preacher at the Fairview Christian Church in Carthage, MO, in 1968 when I was ordained.
On Oct. 25, 2002, Boyce’s 24-year-old grandson, Joshua Mouton, was involved in a traffic accident that left him paralyzed and with all kinds of other injuries.
At one point, a surgeon told the Moutons that Josh would never recover and that he would be a vegetable for the rest of his life. Today, though he still cannot speak, Josh has proved that doctor wrong. He interacts with people and can move most of his right side.
For two hours every day, he goes to rehab sessions at St. John’s rehabilitation center where he is trying to learn how to speak, eat and walk again. His current form of communication is to respond to yes-or-no questions, with one finger on the right hand meaning, "yes" and two meaning "no."
There is an internet site called “Visiting Ours.com” where I can get updates on Joshua Mouton’s progress. Here’s the latest information.
1/22/2004 – “Progress has been slow for Josh the last month or so. There are still bright moments such as recently when Nancy was preparing to leave and told Josh she loved him. He quickly pointed to himself and back at her. She asked him if he was saying he loved her and he answered, "yes" with a sign. There are also discouraging times because of the gaps in Josh‘s mental abilities and his physical limitations.
“Josh is unable to do anything for himself and requires 24-hour care. He cannot speak, but communicates on a limited basis with "yes" and "no" signals. He is working on some true sign language. He laughs out loud at amusing comments and enjoys movies. He always responds warmly to Kiley when she comes back from work or running errands. His movement is limited to his right arm and hand and his head. He is sustained by a feeding tube, but eats and drinks small amounts orally. Please continue to pray for a breakthrough for Josh and for strength and peace for Kiley, Nancy, John and the rest of the family. Thank you for all you have done and continue to do. God bless.”
It was Boyce Mouton’s continued admonition to look for the blessings amid the trials that helped the family keep its sanity during those tense months.
Joshua’s dad, John said of his father, Boyce, "Dad is optimistic, almost to a fault. It almost drives you nuts, but it’s also very contagious. Every time he would come to visit Josh at the hospital, he was always looking for the silver lining.
"But that’s him to a T. Whenever we would get more bad news, like Josh needing another chest tube, Dad would find something good out of it. He fostered that optimistic outlook and reminded us that this is not the end, and I think we’ve adopted that philosophy as a family."
As I said earlier, no one goes through life unscathed, unwrinkled or unhurt. We all suffer in some form in life.
Life has many facets to it. Some of it is good, very good and some of it is not so good.
PROP.- In our text, Paul described some of the facets or aspects of the Christian life in three words:
1- Stand
2- Agree
3- Rejoice
I. STAND
V. 1 “Stand firm in the Lord”
Standing is good. Standing on your faith, your beliefs, or your convictions is good. It is very good if what you believe is the truth.
ILL.- David Hume, 18th century British philosopher who rejected historic Christianity, once met a friend hurrying along a London street and asked where he was going. The friend said he was off to hear George Whitfield preach. "But surely you don’t believe what Whitfield preaches do you?" "No, I don’t, but he does."
Brothers and sisters, you can’t help but admire someone who has strong convictions, particularly when it is something worthwhile. You not only admire those people, you are often drawn to them and to whatever it is they believe in.
ILL.- Take, for example, Mel Gibson and his new movie THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. I have read that he has spent something like 30 million dollars of his own money to make this movie about the last 12 hours of the life of Christ.
A person doesn’t spend that much money on something he doesn’t believe in! And everything that I have read about the movie and why Mel Gibson made it is positive. THE MOVIE WAS BORN OUT OF HIS FAITH, which apparently is growing.
Mel Gibson had a lot of respect for his ability as an actor before this movie and who knows? He may lose some of his popularity (at least with the acting world), but he doesn’t seem to care.
My son-in-law said he heard Mel Gibson speak at the Willow Creek Community Church after viewing the movie and Mel said he didn’t care about the negative press and comments because he’d already experienced an 18-year movie career.
We all need more conviction and courage in living the Christian life. We need to believe it, trust it, live it and stand on it! We must not be afraid to speak for Christ!
Where will we get this conviction? Rom. 10:17 reads, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”
The more we get into the Word of God and the more the Word of God gets into us, the more courage and conviction we will have!
I Cor. 15:1 “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.” Have you?
I Cor. 15:58 “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Don’t you know?
I Cor. 16:13 “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.”
II Thess. 2:15 “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.”
ILL.- There is a story told about the great English actor Macready. A preacher once said to him: "I wish you would explain to me something." "Well, what is it? I don’t know that I can explain anything to a preacher."
"What is the reason for the difference between you and me? You appear before great crowds night after night with your fiction and I am preaching the essential and unchangeable truth, and I am not getting any crowd at all."
Macready’s answer was this: "This is quite simple. I can tell you the difference between us. I present my fiction as though it were truth and you present your truth as though it were fiction."
Brothers and sisters, we need to live our faith like we believe it is truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Perhaps if and when we do this more people will be drawn to Christ and to His church!
II. AGREE
V. 2 “Agree with each other in the Lord” Or agree in the Lord.
“I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.” These were two women in the church at Philippi who apparently couldn’t get along with one another. And conflict happens in the world and in the church, because we are still human beings with strong opinions and ideas.
ILL.- Two men who lived in a small village got into a terrible dispute that they could not resolve. So they decided to talk to the town sage. The first man went to the sage’s home and told his version of what happened. When he finished, the sage said, "You’re absolutely right." The next night, the second man called on the sage and told his side of the story. The sage responded, "You’re absolutely right."
Afterward, the sage’s wife scolded her husband. "Those men told you two different stories and you told both of them they were absolutely right. That’s impossible -- they can’t both be absolutely right." The sage turned to his wife and said, "You’re absolutely right."
What is the moral to this story? Agree with everybody? Tell everybody they are right? No, the real way to handle conflict is to learn to disagree without being disagreeable.
ILL.- Bill Hybels is the Senior Pastor of the large Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL. Their attendance is something like 18,000 per weekend. He said, “First, we acknowledge that conflict is inevitable. Then we go the next step and say, ‘When your nose does get bent out of joint—not if but when—you have a biblical responsibility to take the high road of conflict resolution.’
“That means going directly to the person with whom you’re having this conflict rather than building a guerrilla team to ambush this person later.
“We also reach a kind of reverse accountability. In staff meetings or in front of the congregation, we say, If someone whose nose is bent out of joint comes to you for a ‘WON’T YOU JOIN MY CAUSE?’ conversation, you have a biblical responsibility to interrupt mid-sentence and say, ’I think you’re talking to the wrong person. Please go to the individual with whom you’re having this conflict and seek to resolve it in a God-glorifying way.’"
Brothers and sisters, conflict is not good. Not often. I personally have not seen much good come from it. I think it people would learn to bear with one another first of all then most conflict could be avoided.
Col. 3:13 “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
BEAR WITH EACH OTHER. This is something that is often missing in our lives. I heard one preacher explain it this way. These words could well be translated “put up with one another.” Sure, you don’t like something about someone, but put up with it anyway.
ILL.- There are things you don’t like about your mate, but you put up with them and it for the sake of your marriage. He may clip his toenails in the living room, on the carpet and that just infuriates you, but you may have learned to put up with him in this matter. She may take two hours to get ready for church or to go out to dinner, but you hopefully have learned to put up with her slowness, etc. The illustrations are endless.
There are many things that our loved ones (mates, children, etc.) do that irritate us but we have learned to put up with these things because we love them more than we love our own opinions and ideas. We bear with them because we love them dearly!
Now the other side of the coin is this: if something is so bad that confrontation must take place then it must be done in the spirit of love, forgiveness and with the attitude of wanting to help, not hinder and not to put down, etc.
ILL.- For example, there were times when my children (Holly and Shane) were little and I would discipline them, I would spank them, but afterward, I would sit down with them and say something like, “Honey, the reason I did this is because I love you, and what you did was not good, etc.”
Paul advised these two women to “agree with each other in the Lord.” We will never fully agree with one another about everything in life, but we must strive for agreement. We must agree on the basics of life, the Christian life, etc. and beyond that, learn that the Lord allows individual opinions. WE MUST BE GENEROUS AND GRACIOUS WITH ONE ANOTHER!
Rom. 15:1-3 “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself….”
III. REJOICE
V. 4 “Rejoice in the Lord”
ILL.- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was a member of the U.S. Supreme Court for 30 years. His mind, wit and work earned him the unofficial title of "the greatest justice since John Marshall."
At one point in his life, Justice Holmes explained his choice of a career by saying: "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers."
I’ve seen some preachers like that. I think there are times when we must be serious but there are also times when we must demonstrate some joy and perhaps some laughter.
Generally, when you hear someone laughing you automatically assume they are joyous or are a joy-filled person. Laughter is scriptural and it is good medicine. Proverbs 17:22. It is the sign of something good in a person’s life.
We are drawn to people who laugh a lot. Churches that laugh a lot of are attractive and contagious. This is another reason why I use humor in my sermons. I want people to learn to laugh in life. I want us to experience joy in the Lord. I want us to realize that laughter in the church is good medicine.
This is one reason why Wayne Smith preached for 40 years at the Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY. He laughed a lot and made his people laugh. THEY WERE A CONTAGIOUS BUNCH OF PEOPLE! But it was a good contagious! And that church grew numerically and spiritually.
Now the point of this text is this: What brings joy into our lives? What makes us truly joyful and full of laughter?
ILL.- Ruth Barton wrote these words in Today’s Christian Woman Ruth Barton, “When my husband and I were first married and lived in a small apartment, I thought if we could just buy a house I’d be satisfied.”
“Several years later, we did get our house. Even though it was a modest, three-bedroom ranch in need of decorating and repair, it felt so good to have space! And to walk out our front door into a grassy yard rather than a dark hallway seemed like heaven on earth. For the privilege of owning a home I could certainly live with peeling paint, yellow and green wallpaper, and an outdated kitchen. Or could I?
“It didn’t take long for me to realize I’m not that easily satisfied. Oh, I was fine as long as the first flush of purchasing excitement lasted. But pretty soon, desire began to overtake me again. If we could just replace the shag carpeting, if we could just get rid of the avocado appliances, if we could just remodel the kitchen … then I’d be satisfied.
‘Well, here it is ten years later. We’ve done all those things (and more!) and I’ve made a startling realization: It doesn’t matter how much we buy, there is always plenty more that I want. I’m very much a part of the never-enough world. Chances are, so are you.”
Ruth Barton is right on! Material things don’t bring lasting joy or happiness. We will always see something that we like better than what we have and want it. Eventually or hopefully, we will come to the realization that material things don’t bring lasting happiness.
Only the Lord can produce lasting happiness or joy. Or as some people say, happiness is based on happenings (or things) and joy is based on our relationship to God and Christ and what we have in them.
This is why Paul said, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” What we have in Christ is lasting. It is eternal. It can never be taken away from us. He has given us the forgiveness of our sins, the release from guilt, the relief of realizing that we don’t have to be perfect to please Him, and the promise of an eternal home in heaven. IF THESE THINGS DON’T BRING SOME JOY TO OUR HEARTS THEN SOMETHING IS WRONG.
Like Wayne Smith used to say, “If this doesn’t light your fire then your wood is wet.”
ILL.- There was once a stern/sober faced minister who preached a sermon on “The Tears of Jesus.” He said, “Three times we read that Jesus wept, but never read that He smiled.”
A little girl below, forgetting herself exclaimed: “Oh, but I know he did!” Shocked, the minister said, “Why do you say that, my child?”
Frightened with all eyes on her, she said, “Because the Bible says He called a little child, and he came to Him. If Jesus had looked like you, I know the child would have been afraid to come to him.”
Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord always. And let it be seen in you!
CONCLUSION-------------------------------
ILL.- In Florence, Italy, a young artist labored long and hard over a marble statue of an angel. When finished, he asked Michelangelo to examine it. The young artist concealed himself. No Master looked over the work more carefully—it was perfect in every way. The young artist waited. But his heart nearly broke when he heard, “It lacks only one thing.”
For days the artist could not eat or sleep, until a friend called Michelangelo at studio and ask him what he thought. “It lacks only life.”
Many people who are now living lack life. They lack the life that only Christ can give them. It is our job to share Him with them. And how thankful we need to be that Christ has given us such a wonderful life with many different facets to it.
