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Choose Joy through Relationships
Philippians 1:1-2
To live in relationships with others benefits one's health significantly. That is the finding reported in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
"Building on a dozen studies correlating friendship and fellowship with health, a new study has found that people with a broad array of social ties are significantly less likely to catch colds than those with sparse social networks," reported The New York Times News Service.
Researchers have found similar health benefits from relationships for heart disease patients. In one study Dr. Redford Williams, director of the behavioral medicine research center at Duke University Medical Center, "found that heart disease patients with few social ties are six times as likely to die within six months as those with many relatives, friends and acquaintances."
Reportedly, one of the main beneficiaries of a broadened network of relationships is our immune system. In another study, Dr. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, director of health psychology at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, and her husband, Dr. Ronald Glaser, a virologist at Ohio State, "have reported that a person's immune response to vaccines increases with the strength of his or her social support."
Good relationships are essential to life. To live a full life we each need a healthy relationship to God as well as healthy relationships with others. As Mark Twain once said, "To get the full value of joy, you must have someone to divide it with."
That is the major theme of the book of the Bible which we are going to dip into today. The book is Paul's letter to the Church at Philippi. The theme is joy.
Let us read the opening words of Paul's letter to this group of people whom he came to love so much:
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christianity is a relationship not a religion. In this one sentence Paul refers to four relationships that are absolutely essential to our lives as Christians. First of all there is our relationship with other Christians; that is the channel for joy. There is our relationship to Christ Jesus; he is the source of joy. Then there is our relationship to non-Christians; that is the place where our joy in Christ should overflow. And finally there is the relationship of God the Father and God the Son; this is the model of joy.
First of all, let's talk about relationships with Christians, the channel for joy. I believe the Lord wants us to choose joy in relationship to other Christians. The first relationship we see in this passage is Paul's relationship to Timothy. You will remember from our study of Acts that Paul met Timothy on his second missionary journey just before he and his companions took off for Philippi. Paul took this young disciple under his wing, so to speak, and took him along on his journey to Philippi. Thus Timothy was well known to the church there. Timothy later became Paul's representative to various churches. They developed together a father-son relationship in the faith. By the end of his life, there was no one whom the Apostle Paul felt closer to than Timothy. And it is just those kind of relationships that can turn the world upside down. Just two Christians coming together like that with the goal of loving the Lord, loving each other, and loving others into the kingdom of Jesus Christ has a profound impact upon the world.
We also see reflected in this passage Paul's relationship with the Church at Philippi. Paul writes to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons.
The Church at Philippi started as a small group. When Paul arrived in Philippi he was not able to follow his normal pattern of evangelization. Normally Paul would go first to the synagogue in a given city and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Jews. But there were not enough Jewish men in Philippi to form a synagogue. So Paul somehow found out about a group of women who apparently followed the teachings of the Old Testament and gathered by the riverside, outside of the city gate, for prayer. Paul and his companions went to that group of women and preached the gospel to them. A wealthy woman named Lydia, who was a dealer in purple cloth, became a believer in Jesus Christ. This prominent woman was the first convert on the continent of Europe. So the church in Philippi was born through a small group ministry. Christians meeting in small groups for the purpose of prayer, teaching, worship, fellowship and evangelism can have a powerful impact on the world. With whom are you building relationships in the body of Christ?
Now I recognize that not all relationships are positive. Some time ago I read a story that came from the Associated Press. They reported about a Dallas, Texas man who had a disagreement with a bank. His home sat adjacent to a tract of land on which the bank planned to build a new facility. The bank wanted to buy his home and knock it down.
The man said, "No deal!" His property was appraised at $86, 350, and he claimed that the bank had offered only $68,000. The bank claimed it had offered more than that.
Ninety years old, the man had lived in his house for some fifty years. He didn't have to sell his home, and so he decided he wouldn't. The bank wanted to build, and so it decided it would. The result is a new bank building shaped like a horseshoe around the man's home. An automatic teller machine dispenses cash fifteen feet from where he sleeps. The cars of drive-through customers idle in front of his kitchen window.
The bank and the ninety year old man may be adjacent to each other, but they can scarcely be called neighbors. Often relationships in the church work like that. We work around each other, rather than working together. Those who walk in love need to do more than co-exist, they need to cooperate.
Relationships with other Christians are essential to your growth in Christ because they are God's channel to bring you joy. Paul prayed with joy for the Philippians because of their relationship with him. I recognize that not all relationships are joyful ones. Because we are sinners we often hurt one another, often deeply. But in Christ there is hope, in Christ there is the ability to forgive. In Christ there are never ending opportunities for reconciliation. We all know of broken marriages, fractured friendships, severed relationships between parents and children, church splits--and all of these are, in some way, a result of sin. Bottom line: relationships bring pain and we don't want any more pain. But I believe Jesus would say to us today that joy in relationship to other Christians is possible in the midst of pain. Jesus can give us joy, but we have to accept his joy and conduct our relationships on his terms. In him we can find joy in relationships.
The second relationship which Paul mentions in his opening greeting is the Christian's relationship to Christ, the source of joy. He calls himself and Timothy -- servants of Christ Jesus. And he writes to the Philippian Christians whom he calls saints in Christ Jesus. Relationships with other Christians are the channel for God's joy, but they are not the ultimate source of joy.
So many people get frustrated with human relationships because they look to those relationships as the source of joy. No mere human being can be the source of joy for you. We are all finite. Furthermore, we are all sinful. So we need to change our expectations of relationships. Don't look to your spouse, your children, your neighbors, your work associates, your friends, your pastor, or your church to be your source of joy. All of these relationships will fail at some time.
We need to look to Jesus as the source of our joy. When we are in him then we can have joy. There is joy in being his servant and his saint. To be Christ's saints means that we are set apart; we are set apart to serve him.
Don McCullough writes in Waking from the American Dream:
During World War II, England needed to increase its production of coal. Winston Churchill called together labor leaders to enlist their support. At the end of his presentation he asked them to picture in their minds a parade which he knew would be held in Piccadilly Circus after the war. First, he said, would come the sailors who had kept the vital sea lanes open. Then would come the soldiers who had come home from Dunkirk and then gone on to defeat Rommel in Africa. Then would come the pilots who had driven the Luftwaffe from the sky.
Last of all, he said, would come a long line of sweat-stained, soot-streaked men in miner's caps. Someone would cry from the crowd, ?And where were you during the critical days of our struggle?'
And from ten thousand throats would come the answer, ?We were deep in the earth with our faces to the coal.'
Seldom does serving Christ involve a prominent or glamorous job. Often in serving Christ we must be "deep in the earth with our faces to the coal." But there is joy in serving Christ as in serving no other. For one day there will be a great parade, not in Piccadilly Circus, but along the streets of Christ's eternal kingdom, and seven words from Christ will bring us everlasting joy in that day if we have served him well on earth. Those seven words that will bring great joy will be: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant!"
The third relationship that Paul talks about here is the relationship of Christians to non-Christians, the overflow of joy. Where do I get that out of the text? Paul is writing to the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi. In each of his letters Paul writes to people who are within a certain geography. Christians are always related to a place, and in many of Paul's letters, especially this one to the Philippians, they are related to a city.
Now earlier I mentioned that the Church at Philippi was born through a small group ministry. But it is also true that the Church in Philippi grew through small group ministry. This next small group we are going to look at met in prison, and it was an evangelistic small group.
Some time after Lydia's conversion, Paul and his friends were on their way to the place of prayer when a slave girl who was possessed by a demon, and who told fortunes, started following them and shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved."
Now you would think that Paul would be grateful for the publicity, but apparently the manner in which this woman was talking became very irritating to Paul. So he turned to the woman and said, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" And at that moment the demon left her.
Now the owners of this slave girl realized that their hope of making money through her fortune-telling was gone. So they seized Paul and one of his companions, Silas, and brought them before the authorities. Their charge against Paul and Silas was that they were Jews and that they were advocating customs unlawful for Romans to practice. In other words, Paul and Silas were telling people to worship Jesus instead of Caesar. The authorities then beat Paul and Silas and threw them into prison.
So far, Paul's mission to Philippi does not sound very successful. But here is the rest of the story. While Paul and Silas were in prison they sang hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening. That's the small group ministry I was talking about. Next, God sent an earthquake and all of their chains were loosed. The jailer woke up, and thinking that his prisoners had escaped, he drew his sword to kill himself, rather than face the humiliation of execution by his superiors for having lost his prisoners. But Paul, cried out to the jailer through the pitch black darkness and said, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"
The jailer, startled by all of these events, and overwhelmed by Paul's compassion, fell trembling before Paul and Silas and asked the immortal question, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved -- you and your household." So the Philippian jailer became the third convert, that we know about, in Philippi. And he came to know Christ through a small group meeting in a prison.
Jesus wants us to have a vision for our community. He wants us to have a vision for loving non-Christians who are in our communities; he wants us to love them into the City of God. Jesus wants us to overflow with joy on to the non-Christians that we know so that they get swept up in the current.
Our relationships with non-Christians are the means which the Lord is going to use to bring them into a relationship with himself and with his church. The following letter which my friend Tim Hansel, a teacher, received from a former student illustrates this:
I may not be burned deeply into your memory, Tim, but you are in mine. And now that you've surfaced once again in my life, I thought I'd let you know that.
I remember the first day I had you for P.E. when I was a freshman in 1966. We all had to run the 600-yard dash and I didn't want to. I was always coming in last, no matter how hard I ran (and I always ran as hard as I could). But this one was different.
Oh, I still came in last - by about 150 yards, as I remember. But I remember you running along side of me that last 100 yards yelling, "Good effort, Lou! Great effort! Absolutely magnificent!"
I felt like I'd won the Olympic Gold Medal for the marathon. And I became totally devoted to you because no one had ever encouraged me like you.
The next year I was your manager for the soccer team . . . and I would never have had the courage to do it, if it had not been for your example.
Well, that was more than a decade ago. I went to college and majored in journalism because my senior English teacher told me I had no ability as a writer (I never liked him much and I had become fascinated by things I supposedly could not do). All through those four years I held your example in my mind, looked for possibilities and wondered - often - how you always managed to be so positive all the time.
Five years ago I met Jesus and figured you out.
The Lord wants you to choose joy in relationship to other Christians. He wants you to find your source of joy in serving him. He wants you to overflow joy on to non-Christians so that they will be drawn to the Savior. But how do you do it? How do you choose joy, find joy, and overflow joy? The only way is by God's grace.
Paul wrote to the Church at Philippi: "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Grace-that is the key to choosing joy, finding joy to begin with, and overflowing joy. Grace is God's Riches At Christ's Expense. God loves us so much that he gave what was most valuable to him, his Son, so that we could experience joy. Jesus died on a cross and rose from the dead to pay the penalty, to conquer, to forgive our sins. And sin is the thing that will steal joy every time. For sin is basically self-centeredness. Sin has a big "I" in the center. And we will never know true joy so long as we are living for ourselves. Jesus died to free us from the prison of our own self-centeredness and to give us his joy. Joy is a choice. It is a choice we can make because God gives it to us as a gift.
The Greek word for grace is χάρις and the Greek word for joy is χαρά. The two words may in fact come from the same root, meaning "a gift." Joy is a gift of God's grace. It comes from God the Father and God the Son, as does his peace, which means health in the fullest sense of the term; health in all of our relationships.
The perfect model of joy is relationship in the Trinity. St. Augustine formulated a doctrine of the Trinity where he referred to God the Father as the Lover, Jesus the Son as the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit as the love between them. In the Trinity there is modeled the perfect relationship of love and joy. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit want to bring us in on that relationship, a relationship of great love and joy.
C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity that "God is not a static thing-not even a person-but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. The union between the Father and Son is such a live concrete thing that this union itself is also a Person. . . . What grows out of the joint life of the Father and Son is a real Person, is in fact the Third of the three Persons who are God.
"This third Person is called, in technical language, the Holy Ghost or the 'spirit' of God. . . . this spirit of love is, from all eternity, a love going on between the Father and Son.
"And now, what does it all matter? It matters more than anything else in the world. The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance. There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made. . . . If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry." (Mere Christianity, pp. 152-153.)
Are you looking for joy? Of course you are. We all are. And the only way to find joy is to enter into the Great Dance with our Triune God. Shall we dance?

Choose Joy through Prayer
Philippians 1:3-11
A pastor and a bus driver went to heaven. The bus driver got a big beautiful mansion with large rooms. The preacher got only a one-room bungalow, so he went to St. Peter and said, "How come I got a very small place and the bus driver got that beautiful house? I've preached the Good News all my life!"
St. Peter replied, "When you preached, the people fell asleep. When the bus driver drove his bus, people prayed."
No doubt about it, the Lord wants us to pray. The Lord loves to hear from his children. And it has been said that the life of the Christian is the life of prayer. But what should be our attitude in prayer? When can we find time to pray? Why should we pray with joy? What should we pray for other Christians? These are some of the questions we are going to examine this morning from Philippians 1:3-11. Hear the words of Paul about his prayers for the Philippians:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God.
First of all, what should be our attitude in prayer? The Lord wants us to PRAY WITH THANKSGIVING! Paul's prayers are always in the affirmative. In every one of Paul's letters, except for Galatians, 1 Timothy and Titus, Paul always opens his letters by telling his readers that he is praying for them, and that he is praying with thanksgiving. Or, in the case of 2 Corinthians and Ephesians, he opens the letter with praise to God.
How do our prayers compare to Paul's? Are we praying for others? Or are we only praying for ourselves all of the time? Do we pray with thanksgiving for other people? Or do we moan and groan about others before the Lord?
As sinful human beings we always tend to focus on the negative. It is like the husband and wife who had been married for many years. The wife was critical of the husband so much of the time that the husband was even starting to anticipate his wife's criticism. He was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. So one day when his wife commented to him in the morning before he went off to work that she liked his tie he said: "So what's wrong with the rest of my ties?!"
We tend as human beings to focus on the negative so much that we anticipate a negative comment even when it is not forthcoming! How different the Apostle Paul was. He focused on the positive. It's like the old song:
You've got to accentuate the positive,
Eliminate the negative,
Latch on to the affirmative,
And don't mess with Mr. In-between!
Don James was an ex-marine who had fought in the Korean conflict. He moved to Pittsburgh and worked in insurance. He used to say: "If I can't eat it, drink it, or sleep with it, I'm not interested in it." One day Don James wandered into Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh where Sam Shoemaker was the pastor. Sam was the man who helped develop the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. After the service, Don James went up to Sam and said: "You are all full of shit here." Sam replied, "That is the most refreshing thing anyone has ever said to me coming out of this church." Don James was so taken aback by Sam's response that he went back to church there again and again.
Now, the thing that really hindered Don James from coming to Christ was not agnosticism. No, the thing that really blocked the way to Christ was that Don hated his boss. So one day Sam Shoemaker challenged Don to pray for his boss. And Don said, "You've got to be kidding. Pray for him? I'd like to kill him!" But Don started praying for his boss, and not that God would eliminate him, but that God would bless him. Soon after that Don's boss came into his office and asked, "What is it with you? You've changed!" And Don had changed. He went to Sam Shoemaker and said, "I'd like to join your church." And Sam said, "What makes you think we want you?"
So Don James and Sam Shoemaker teamed up to lead what became known as the Pittsburgh Experiment. It was a vision for winning Pittsburgh to Christ. One day Sam took Don up Mt. Washington and showed him the city. He said, "Don, that's your city. We pray that Pittsburgh may one day become as famous for God as it is for steel."
Do you have a vision for your community? Are you praying for other people? Are you praying in the affirmative, asking God to bless them?
I hope that you are praying for others, and that you are praying with thanksgiving. But don't just pray for people, tell people that you are praying for them. Telling them will have a powerfully positive impact on their lives. That's what Paul did. He told people that he was praying for them and that encouraged them.
My best friend from seminary now teaches in a seminary. He often calls me up and lets me know that his family is praying for me every day. When I hear that it makes my day.
Go make someone's day for them. Pray for them, and tell them you are praying for them!
But you may be asking the question, "When can I find time to pray? My schedule is so hectic!" You may be a mother. Your kids wake up at 6:30 and you are on the go the rest of the day. Your husband comes home, you have dinner. The kids go to bed. You have a few quiet moments when you try to get some of your own work done. We are all busy people. When are we going to get time to pray? Let me suggest this: PRAY EVERY TIME YOU THINK OF SOMEONE.
Have you ever thought about this: you are thinking all the time! If you weren't thinking, you wouldn't be alive. About 90% of the time you are thinking about people. Unfortunately, most of that time your thoughts are negative. Most of the time you are probably not thinking: about your boss- "I can't wait to see him!" or about your husband- "I just love you for laying that task on me at the last minute dear!" or about your kids-"Thanks so much for tracking mud in the house for the umpteenth time." Let's face it, most of the time our thoughts about other people are negative. "What did she mean when she said that? She was only thinking of herself. She wasn't thinking about me or my needs. Well if she would just be quiet for a minute I would give her a piece of my mind." And so we work out this whole scenario in our minds based upon the negative impression we have of what we think someone else-wife, husband, boss, or child-is thinking. Then we unload our anger and extend the negativity even further.
Instead, why not turn our negative thoughts of people, and all our thoughts of people into positive, thankful, loving prayers. Paul wrote to the Philippians: "I thank my God every time I remember you." And Paul encourages us to follow his pattern. In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 he writes: "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
Steve Douglass has written an excellent little book entitled, Enjoying Your Walk With God. In that book he says,
Even attentive people don't normally listen or otherwise pay attention to one thing more than about 10 seconds at a time. Our minds work so fast that most activities around us can't feed in enough information to keep our brains fully engaged for longer than that. So about every ten seconds we're shifting a little bit from whatever is in the foreground of our mind to something else. Since our minds are going to drift anyway, why not "let your first stop be God"?
Let your first stop be God. That's what Paul did. Whenever he thought of the Philippians he prayed for them. And he prayed with thanksgiving. Try it. You may find yourself having a running conversation with God throughout the day. And your life will be changed as a result.
But now you may be thinking: "You don't understand my situation. You don't know the people I have to work with. You don't know the people I have to live with. And there are some people in the church I just don't even like. How can I pray with thanksgiving for them every time I think of them? Why should I pray with joy for other people?"
We should pray with joy because of our fellow Christian's partnership in the Gospel and because God is going to finish the work he has begun in them.
Paul writes: "In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now . . ." One thing you can be sure of: if someone else is a Christian, and you are a Christian, then you are partners in getting the good news about Jesus Christ to others. It doesn't matter whether you like their personality and it doesn't matter that the other person is not perfect. The Philippians were not perfect, far from it. They were not a perfect church.
Of course everyone is looking for the perfect church. We say that we aren't, but that is what everyone does. The problem is-there is no perfect church. And even if there was, and you found it, if you joined it, it wouldn't be perfect anymore, because you are not perfect!
The Philippians weren't perfect. They were not perfect evangelists. They did not have a perfect record of loving people to Jesus. But still Paul prayed for them with joy because of their partnership in the gospel. If you are a Christian then you are a witness of Jesus Christ.
What is a witness? I read a great definition of a witness. A witness is something visible or evident that gives grounds for believing in the existence or presence of something else. If Christ is living in your life then you are someone who gives grounds for believing in Christ's existence and power and love.
You can't get around that fact. If you are a Christian then you are a witness. And God has put you together with other imperfect witnesses and made you a member with them of his body-we call it the Church. God has united you with other Christians, made you partners with them in getting out the greatest news ever known to humanity-the news of Jesus' death on the cross for sinners and his resurrection. It is the news of forgiveness, love and power over sin and death. That's great stuff! That's worth celebrating! So why not celebrate the fact that you are partners with other Christians in this great effort? Pray with joy!
But that is not all. The ultimate ground of Paul's joy in prayer is the fact that God is sovereign. God is in charge. And God is faithful. God finishes what he starts. Paul says: "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Paul prayed with joy for the Philippians because he knew that even though they weren't perfect, God was one day going to complete the work that he had begun in them. God will one day make all of us who are believers in Christ-perfect in him! You can pray with joy because you know that the Lord is going to answer your prayers for other Christians. He is not going to abandon them or you.
But what about praying for non-Christians? How can I pray with joy for them? You can pray that they will discover Jesus as their leader and forgiver. And you can pray knowing that God will answer your prayers. He is the one who begins a relationship with people as well as the one who carries on that relationship and brings it to fruition. And I can't believe that a sovereign God who would put you together in a relationship with a non-Christian and give you the desire to pray for that non-Christian, would not also grant a relationship with Christ to that non-Christian through your prayers and through the message of Christ. So you can pray with joy, even for non-Christians because God is sovereign; he is in charge.
The great 16th century explorer, Sir Francis Drake, once said "that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of" a great work "until it be thoroughly finished, that yieldeth the true glory." Drake was a great finisher as well as a beginner. He sailed around the world. Once you've set off on a journey like that, there is no point in stopping half way.
Our God is not a god who stops half way. He finishes what he begins. He has begun a good work in each of us and he will bring it to completion. Because of that fact we can pray with joy for ourselves and each other.
Now you still may be thinking, "This is all sounding very ?Pollyanna-ish' to me. Can I really pray with joy for others? Is praying with joy enough?" The answer is no. Because the kind of joy that Paul prayed with, and the kind of joy you need to pray with, needs to be coupled with love.
Paul says: "It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus." Paul prayed for the Philippians out of a deep love. What the Bible calls agape. And agape is in-spite-of kind of love. When you love someone with agape you love them in spite of their sin, just as God loves you in spite of your sin. And you love them knowing that God has the power, and will one day eradicate their sin; he will utterly destroy it.
Paul loved the Philippians with agape. He said to them: "I have you in my heart." In the Old Testament the high priest wore a breast-piece when he was carrying out official functions in the Temple. On that breast-piece were twelve stones with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The high priest bore the names of the sons of Israel over his heart before the Lord.
Are you holding people in your heart in prayer? That is what I want to do for each one of you in this church. I want to pray for each of you every week. I want to hold you in my heart. And the reason that I want to hold you in my heart is the same reason that Paul held the Philippians in his heart. It is because we share together in the ministry of the Gospel.
Paul also said to the Philippians: "God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus." Paul was making a solemn statement. He wanted the Philippians to be absolutely certain that what he was saying was true. So he called on the Lord, as he often did, to testify to the truth of his statement. If Paul wasn't telling the truth, the Lord would have made it evident to the Philippians. But Paul was telling the truth. He longed for the Philippians with the compassion (literally with the bowels) of Christ Jesus.
Now that sounds strange to our ears! Because we tend to think of the heart as the seat of compassion, but people in Paul's day thought of the bowels, or we would say-the guts, as the seat of compassion. Paul loved the Philippians from the depth of his being. But that love did not come from himself, it was the affection, the compassion, the gut-level love of Jesus Christ.
When was the last time that you told someone in this church that you love them. Tell someone today. It will lift them up and encourage them as few other words can.
So Paul prayed for the Philippians with an attitude of thanksgiving, of joy and of love. But what did he pray for them? What should you pray specifically for others in this church? Paul said: "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God."
First of all, you need to pray for others in the church that their love would abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.
It is not enough just to love God or love others, we need to love with knowledge and discernment. Our love needs to be a knowledgeable love. Today we have the concept that if we are loving others we will always be accepting. To not accept others, to not be tolerant of different lifestyles, is the ultimate sin in our culture and in our world today. But that is not the same as agape which the Bible speaks of. God doesn't just love us and accept us where we are and say, "It doesn't matter if you don't ever change, I love you just the way you are." No, the Lord loves us right where we are today, but he loves us too much to leave us where we are. He loves us so much that he is going to help us become the perfect, mature people he created us to be. The Lord wants us to love others in the same way and pray for them that they may have the same love. Real love is tough, real love is willing to confront sin for what it is. Real love speaks the truth, but it does so in a caring, sensitive way.
Pray for others in the Body of Christ that their love for God and their love for other people would be knowledgeable about good and evil and that they would have moral discernment. That is what this phrase means: "depth of insight". It means moral discernment. If you have that kind of love for other people then you will be able to discern what is best. You will be able to discern what is morally excellent and choose what is right in the big and in the little decisions of life.
If our love is knowledgeable and discerning then we will be pure and blameless. To be pure means to be unmixed. If we have a love coupled with knowledge and discernment then our love will be pure, unmixed with the false concepts of love that abound in the world.
To be blameless means to be morally uninjured. It refers to bumping up against an object and falling down. The Lord doesn't want us to go bumping our way through life. He wants us to make intelligent moral choices.
The day of Christ refers to that day when Jesus will return to the earth, judge everyone who has ever lived, rewarding us according to the deeds we have done in this life. And he will take those who have trusted him to save them from the penalty for their sin, he will take them to himself to be with him for eternity. And he will give those of us, who have trusted in him, resurrection bodies like his own, bodies that will never grow old or weak or die. And we will live with the Lord forever.
That is the goal of the Christian life. That's where we are headed if we are trusting in Christ to save us from our sin. But how in the world can we live a life characterized by Paul's prayer? How can we be filled with the fruit of righteousness?
That fruit of righteousness comes through Jesus Christ. We can't produce that fruit by our own power. Jesus must produce that fruit in us, the fruit of love coupled with moral discernment and knowledge. Only Jesus can make us pure; only he can make us blameless until the day that he returns.
The story is told of two English brothers who when they would come home from school would receive tea and cakes from their mother. But when they had done something wrong they would be sent to their room without tea. Being the type of boys who got into mischief quite often, they were sent to their room on numerous occasions without tea. But being very clever little boys, they devised a plan to circumvent their mother's discipline. There was a fruit tree growing up beside their bedroom window on the second floor of the house. So these boys, when they were sent to their room, would simply climb down the limbs of the fruit tree and go to the shed out in back of their home where they would have all sorts of fun together. They even stored up food and various provisions in the shed for just such occasions when they were sent to their room.
Then came the day when their father came home and he said, "I am going to cut down the fruit tree because it is growing too close to the house. And besides, it hasn't produced any fruit in years." The boys were mortified. What was going to become of their afternoon outings when they were sent to their room and they had no tree to climb and escape?
Well, they came up with a plan. They went to the grocery store and bought a bag of apples and they came home that night and they tied the apples to the tree!
The next morning at breakfast, their parents looked through the window and saw the apples on the tree. They were amazed. And their father said, "That is simply astonishing. There is fruit growing on that tree. Apples no less! And it's a pear tree!"
Pear trees don't produce apples. And sinners don't produce the fruit of righteousness which the Lord requires in order for us to enter heaven. Only Jesus Christ, the perfect human being and perfect God can produce the fruit of righteousness. Only he can give us love for himself and for others in the Body of Christ. Only he can give us moral discernment so that we make right choices. Pray to him. Call out to him. And ask the Lord Jesus to make your love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. Pray for yourself, pray for me, pray for everyone here in our church. It is only by such thankful, joyful, loving prayers that this church will become all that the Lord wants us to be. And by his grace at work through your prayers the Lord will make us the loving, mature church that he wants. He began the work of this church, and he will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Choose Joy in Spite of Circumstances
Philippians 1:12-30
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little,
When we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess,
We have lost our thirst for the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity;
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes;
And to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.
That was the prayer of the great explorer, Sir Francis Drake. It could easily have been the prayer of the Apostle Paul. Paul saw himself as a pioneer for Jesus Christ, one who was taking the good news about Jesus where no other person had gone before.
Sometimes we get so mired down in our own negative circumstances, whether it be struggling to get somewhere on time, struggling with the ATM machine, struggling in marriage, struggling in our jobs, struggling with our kids, that we miss the big picture of what life is all about.
Paul gives us a glimpse of his personal life and struggles in Philippians 1:12-30. In these verses he teaches us how to choose joy in spite of our circumstances. In these few verses I believe the Lord wants us to see that it is possible for us to choose joy in spite of our circumstances if we will have the right task, the right relationship and the right destination in our lives. Let's read together God's Word from Philippians 1:12-30 and get the big picture of life that God wants us to have:
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. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.
It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. 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.
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.
Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved-and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.
The first thing we need to see from this passage is that we can choose joy in spite of our circumstances by living to advance the good news. The spreading of the good news about Jesus was the right task which Paul had as his number one priority.
When Paul refers to "what has happened to him" he is probably talking about his imprisonment in Rome. He says that this imprisonment has served to advance the gospel. The Greek word Paul uses for advance was used of engineers who would go out and clear a path for an army to follow. In other words, Paul saw his circumstances as clearing a path for the advance of the good news about Jesus.
Is that the way we look at our circumstances? If it is, then that will change our whole perspective on suffering. And we can have joy in the midst of suffering.
Happiness is dependent upon pleasant circumstances; joy is not. Happiness comes from the same Latin root for happening. Happiness is dependent upon certain happenings. But joy is possible even in the midst of pain because joy comes from the Lord and not from our circumstances.
Corrie ten Boom, as many of you know, was a Christian who survived a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Corrie and her family members were placed in prison because they had harbored Jews in their home in Holland. But Corrie and her sister Betsie discovered joy in the midst of that prison camp because they lived to share the good news about Jesus Christ with others who were there.
By God's grace we can choose joy in spite of our circumstances. Whether our painful circumstances involve physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual suffering, we can still choose joy if our focus is on advancing the good news of Jesus Christ.
How did Paul's circumstances advance the good news? He says that as a result of his imprisonment "it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ." While Paul was under house arrest in Rome he was being guarded by the praetorian guard. This was an elite group of 9 or 10,000 military men hand-picked to guard the emperor and other important officials of the Roman government. And they were guarding Paul! Paul always had one of these men guarding him, and every time the shift changed Paul had a new man whom he could tell about Jesus!
Do we view our circumstances, job, neighborhood, school, even our suffering, as a platform from which God is giving us the opportunity to advance the good news about Jesus? That's the way Paul looked at his circumstances and it is the way we should look at ours.
Paul also says that because of his chains most of the Christians in Rome have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. As someone once said, "One man with courage makes a majority." Paul had courage. He wasn't afraid to face death because of his proclamation of the good news. He had nothing to lose, so he proclaimed the good news boldly in every situation. And Paul's courage encouraged other believers to be bold in telling others about Jesus. By the courage that God gives are we doing the same?
Paul mentions that some Christians in Rome are preaching Christ out of envy and rivalry. This is an amazing thing, but it happens in our day too. Many ministers actually view themselves as in competition with one another. Some preachers in Paul's day viewed themselves as being in competition with Paul. So they thought they would make Paul jealous by preaching up a storm while Paul was under house arrest where he could not preach so widely. How ridiculous!
Paul rejoiced whenever Christ was preached and so should we. If our focus is on being pioneers to advance the good news in whatever situation where God has planted us then we will experience joy, because nothing can hinder the gospel. It is the power of God to change people's lives. You can't lose if that is your focus in life. As Jesus said, "Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live." (Mark 8:35, T. L. B.)
Secondly, we can choose joy in spite of our circumstances by living to lift up Christ. Paul discovered through his many sufferings the great truth that he could exalt, that is lift up, Jesus Christ in any and every situation. Because Paul put his relationship with Christ first in his life he was able to choose joy in every circumstance, because nothing could ever take away that relationship with Christ.
Paul said, "Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance." The word for deliverance can also be translated salvation. Paul believed that his imprisonment was actually going to work out to his highest good by Jesus being lifted up through his life.
"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death." Paul wanted first and foremost to live for Christ and die for Christ. And Paul had a hard time deciding which would be better. He says, "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."
"For me, to live is _________." How you fill in the blank in that sentence will determine whether or not you experience joy. If you put anything else in the blank other than Christ you will not have joy, and dying won't be a gain to you. If "for you to live is your family" you won't have lasting joy. If "for you to live is your job," you won't have lasting joy. If "for you to live is golf" you won't have lasting joy. Your wife, your kids, your job, your leisure activities will all eventually disappoint you or run out on you. The only lasting joy is in living for Christ. As someone once said: "Life is what you are alive to." If you are alive to Jesus Christ, then death will be positive for you, not negative.
It is interesting to note how people face death. People generally die the way that they live. If you live for Christ you will die for him and you will die with hope and joy. If you live for yourself you will die with yourself, alone and in despair.
In 1920, Sigmund Freud, the founder of modern psychology, lost through death a young and beautiful daughter. He wrote that he wondered when his time would come and he wished it would be soon. "I do not know what more there is today," he wrote. "It is such a paralyzing event, which can stir no afterthoughts when one is not a believer. . . ." Freud later took his own life while he was suffering from cancer.
In contrast, consider the life of atheist-turned-Christian, C. S. Lewis. In a letter written just a few weeks before his own death in 1963 C. S. Lewis said, "I was unexpectedly revived from a long coma, and perhaps the almost continuous prayers of my friends did it - it would have been a luxuriously easy passage, and one almost regrets having the door shut in one's face." Then in his last letter to a woman friend Lewis said, "Thanks for your note. Yes, Autumn is really the best part of the seasons; and I'm not sure that old age isn't the best part of life. But, of course, like Autumn it doesn't last."
C. S. Lewis died as he lived, with hope and joy in Christ. Sigmund Freud died as he lived, not trusting in Christ for eternal life, and so he died in despair.
The choice is ours. But if we want to have joy in spite of our circumstances, if we want to have joy even as we face death, then we must live for Christ now. That is the right relationship that needs to be central in each of our lives.
This leads to the third point which is that we can choose joy in spite of our circumstances by living as citizens of heaven. We cannot have a sense of destiny, purpose and joy in life without having the right destination as our goal. Paul writes in verse 27: "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." The phrase "conduct yourselves" literally means "act as citizens." The Philippians were Roman citizens because Philippi was a Roman colony. The Philippians had all the rights and privileges of being citizens of Rome. They even dressed like Romans.
In Philippians 3:20 Paul tells them that they are citizens of heaven. Paul uses citizenship as a metaphor for belonging to Christ. And in Philippians 1:27-30 Paul mentions 4 marks of the heavenly citizen.
The first mark of the heavenly citizen is steadfastness. Paul says, "Whatever happens," that is whether he is released from prison or whether he is sentenced to execution, "conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm . . ." Above all else, Paul wanted the Philippians to persevere in spreading the gospel.
In 1992 Beth Anne DeCiantis attempted to qualify for the Olympic Trials marathon. In order to do that she had to complete a 26 mile, 385 yard race in under two hours and forty five minutes.
Beth started the race strong but began having problems around mile 23. Still, she reached the final straightaway in two hours and forty three minutes. Two hundred yards from the finish she stumbled and fell. She had trouble standing up again. But the crowd yelled, "Get up!" and she did, with less than a minute to go.
Then five yards short of the finish line, with ten seconds to go, she fell again. She began to crawl. And with the crowd cheering her on she crossed the finish line on her hands and knees. Her time was two hours, 44 minutes, 57 seconds!
Hebrews 12:1 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."
That story reminds me of what C. S. Lewis once wrote in a letter to a correspondent: "No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be v. muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one's temper and give it up."
The second mark of a heavenly citizen is solidarity. We will be talking more about unity next week as we examine the first half of chapter 2 of Philippians. But Paul at this point introduces the topic of solidarity by saying: "stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel."
The mark of a heavenly citizen, the mark of a true Christian, is that he or she stands in unity with other true Christians. And this unity, this solidarity, is absolutely essential to the success of the Church.
I heard a story about a man who, when he was in school, used to be on the crew team. Every afternoon they would practice rowing together as a team. On one afternoon as this young man made his way down to the river by his school he was absolutely elated. He couldn't wait to get out on the river and give it all he had for his team. After practice he walked back to the dorms with a friend feeling absolutely dejected. He said to his friend, "I don't understand. I was giving it all I had, rowing as hard as I could this afternoon, and it seemed like we were going nowhere." His team-mate responded, "That's funny. I wasn't pulling at all, and I felt we were doing splendidly!"
To be a successful team of Christians, requires the same thing that being a successful crew team requires - solidarity. It requires unity in rowing and an all-out commitment on the part of every member of the team. If we are citizens of heaven, then solidarity with other Christians should mark our lives.
The third mark of the heavenly citizen is security. Paul says: "... without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you." Paul is encouraging the Philippians, "Don't be scared by those who oppose the good news. Get out there and share it anyway." The number one reason most Christians give for not telling others about Jesus is fear. Usually it is fear of rejection that paralyzes us. But the Lord is saying to us today, "You don't have to be afraid of non-Christians. You can be secure in your relationship with Christ. And your security, your lack of fear, will be a sign to them." At the very end of his life, Paul wrote to Timothy these words, "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but of power, of love, and of self-discipline." God has not given us a spirit of fear toward other people. So we must not let our fears paralyze us, we need to tap into God's power and love and self-discipline.
The fourth mark of the heavenly citizen is suffering. Paul says: "For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have."
One thing is guaranteed in this life: we will suffer. As Sheldon Kopp has written: "Life can be counted on to provide all the pain that any of us might need."
The question is whether we will suffer with Christ or without him. Will we choose joy in the midst of our suffering, or not?
An American pastor was leading a worship service while on a short term mission trip to the island of Tobago. The service was held at a leper colony. A woman who had been facing away from the pulpit suddenly turned around. It was the most hideous face the pastor had ever seen: nose and ears were entirely eaten away by the disease. The woman lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, "Can we sing Count Your Many Blessings?"
Overcome with emotion, the pastor left the service. He was followed by a team member who said, "I guess you'll never be able to sing that song again."
"Yes I will," the pastor replied, "but I will never sing it the same way again."
If a believer in Jesus Christ can choose joy in the midst of that kind of suffering-perhaps you and I can too, by God's grace.

Choose Joy through Unity
Philippians 2:1-11
A high school orchestra was preparing for a concert that featured a pianist in a rendition of Grieg's A-minor concerto. Before the performance, it was customary for the orchestra to tune up with an "A" sounded by the oboe player. But the oboist was a practical joker, and he had tuned his instrument a half step higher than the piano. You can imagine the effect. After the pianist played a beautiful introduction, the members of the orchestra joined in. What confusion! Every instrument was out of tune with the piano.
If we are going to effectively play the concerto of the Good News about Jesus Christ so that this world will hear it, understand it, and respond positively to it, then we must be unified as a church.
Unity is the topic that the Apostle Paul deals with in this next section of his letter to the Church at Philippi. Let's read together Philippians 2:1-11. Hear the Word of God. . . .
2:1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death-
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Why should you choose joy through unity? Paul gives you four reasons to do so. First of all, you should choose joy through unity in the church because you have been united with Christ. If Christ is living in you by his Holy Spirit then you have literally been joined to him. And if all believers in Christ are joined to him that also means we are joined to one another. If you are a Christian then you need to recognize and realize your unity with other Christians which Jesus Christ has already put into effect.
Comedian Emo Philips used to tell this story: In conversation with a person I had recently met, I asked, "Are you Protestant or Catholic?"
My new acquaintance replied, "Protestant."
I said, "Me too! What franchise?"
He answered, "Baptist."
"Me too!" I said. "Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?"
"Northern Baptist," he replied.
"Me too!" I shouted.
We continued to go back and forth. Finally I asked, "Northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1879 or Northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912?"
He replied, "Northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912."
I said, "Die, heretic!"
That story would be even funnier if it weren't so true. And the same thing could be said about Presbyterians. What we so often fail to recognize as American Christians living at the beginning of the twenty-first century is that if we are Christians then we are joined to Christ and we are also joined to other Christians, whether they be Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox, or whatever shade of Protestant. We need to recognize and realize the unity that Christ has already brought about.
The second reason Paul gives for choosing joy through unity is because of Christ's love. If you have truly experienced the love of Jesus, that contra-conditional, in-spite-of-your-sin kind of love, then you will want to love other believers in Christ. It is when we forget how much God has forgiven us and loved us in Christ that we find it difficult to love other believers.
John Newton is remembered for his hymn Amazing Grace. In his later years, Newton often lost his memory in the pulpit and had to be reminded of the subject about which he had been preaching. He said, "My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and that Jesus is a great Savior." If we would remember those two things: that we are great sinners, and that Jesus loved us so much that he gave his life for us, we will be encouraged to love and seek unity with fellow believers.
A third reason Paul gives for choosing joy through unity is because of the fellowship we have with the Holy Spirit. Fellowship, relationship with the Holy Spirit is not just a "me and the Spirit" kind of experience. If you are a Christian then you have fellowship with the Holy Spirit and with every other Christian who has fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
The famous Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, was on a streetcar one day in Basel, Switzerland. A tourist to the city climbed on and sat down next to Barth. The two men started chatting with each other. "Are you new to the city?" Barth inquired. "Yes," said the tourist. "Is there anything you would particularly like to see in this city?" asked Barth. "Yes," said the tourist, "I'd love to meet the famous theologian Karl Barth. Do you know him?" Barth replied, "Well, as a matter of fact, I do. I give him a shave every morning." The tourist got off the streetcar quite delighted. He went back to his hotel saying to himself, "I met Karl Barth's barber today."
Every Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit, a person in whom Christ actually lives by His Spirit. But how often we sit next to other believers, eat with them, sing with them, yet fail to see that we have been in the presence of the Holy Spirit himself.
That reminds me of the luncheon a man put on once to which he invited quite a number of his friends, many of whom were famous people. As the host said a prayer at the beginning of the luncheon he also said to his assembled guests: "Just remember that the most interesting person in the room is the one you are sitting next to!"
Are you the kind of person who walks into a room and says, "Here I am!" Or are you the kind of person who walks into a room and says, "There you are!" I think Jesus wants us and will enable us to be the latter.
The fourth reason Paul gives for choosing joy through unity is because of tenderness and compassion. One of my favorite movies is On Golden Pond with Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn. They play this aging couple who are trying to come to terms with their daughter's divorce and relationship with a new man. The daughter is played by Jane Fonda. The aging couple is also trying to get reacquainted with their teenage grandson whom they have never spent much time with. The movie is all about friction in family relationships and how unity can be achieved. The grandfather is kind of a surly character who is not dealing well with the aging process. His wife calls him "You old poop!" After one wrenching scene where the grandfather yells at his grandson and the grandson can't understand his grandfather's anger, Katharine Hepburn makes a great statement to the boy. She says, "Sometimes you have to look people straight in the eye and know that they are doing the best job they possibly can."
Sometimes it is hard to have tenderness and compassion toward one another, even as fellow Christians. But if we have the tenderness and compassion of Christ in our hearts then we will look our surly brother or sister in the eye and either know that they are doing the best job they possibly can under the circumstances, or that even if they aren't doing their best job, we can forgive them in Christ.
But this raises the question: How do you choose joy through unity? Paul says, "If you have these reasons to realize unity in the church, and you do, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose." Paul wants the Philippians to be unified in mind, emotion and will. Unity must first be based upon the truth of God's Word. But if unity starts in the mind it flows over into the emotions and the will.
Then Paul goes on to tell us how to realize our unity. He gives two practical handles for steering the ship of the church toward unity. The first practical handle is humility. Paul says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves."
What is humility? Humility is the mind-set of the person who is not conceited but who has a right evaluation of himself. Paul says in Romans 12:3, "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." It is false humility to say, "I'm nobody. I'm worthless. But you are wonderful." The person who says that is still preoccupied with himself or herself.
What does Paul mean by: "Consider others better than yourselves."? He certainly doesn't mean that everyone else is superior or more talented than you. Paul doesn't say, "Everyone else is better than you." He says, "Consider others better than yourselves." Imagine what life in the church would be like if each of us gave preferential treatment to all the others. We would be stumbling over one another trying to serve each other. That is, I think, what Paul means by, "Consider others better than yourselves." Don't act out of selfish motives but do what is best for everyone else.
Chuck Swindoll writes, "What does the Lord do to help broaden my horizons and assist me in seeing how selfish I am? Very simple: He gives me four busy kids who step on shoes, wrinkle clothes, spill milk, lick car windows, and drop sticky candy on the carpet. . . . Being unselfish in attitude strikes at the very core of our being. It means we are willing to forego our own comfort, our own preferences, our own schedule, our own desires for another's benefit." That's humility. That's considering others better than yourself.
The second handle Paul gives us for choosing joy through unity is: helpfulness. He says, "Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." Humility should naturally lead to helpfulness. Considering others better than yourself should lead to helping others.
While I was in Oxford several summers ago, I lived around the corner from the house where Edmund Halley once lived. Halley was the man who predicted the return of the comet that now bears his name. He was a friend of Isaac Newton and recognized the importance of Newton's discovery of the law of gravity. Halley challenged Newton to perfect his original idea and corrected some of his mathematical equations. Halley then urged Newton to put his ideas into book form. The work, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, made Newton famous. What few people know is that Halley edited and supervised its publication and even financed its printing, though Newton could more easily have afforded it. Historians today call Halley's action one of the most selfless examples in the records of modern science.
If you count others better than yourself, you will seek to help them and put their interests before your own. And your humility and helpfulness will foster unity in the Body of Christ. Who is there in this church who you could help in some way this week? Is there someone to whom you could write an encouraging note? Is there someone who is sick and needs a meal? Is there someone who needs help watching their kids? Find a need and fill it. And as you do you will be promoting unity in the church.
But Paul doesn't leave us there. He doesn't just tell us to pursue unity through humility and helpfulness. He gives us an example to follow in order to achieve unity in the church. Whose example can you follow to choose joy through unity? The example of Jesus Christ.
Jesus thought of others, not himself. Paul says, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing." Because Jesus thought of others, not himself, he gave up his privileges as God and became a human being so that you and I could be rescued from our sinful condition.
Warren Wiersbe writes, "A reporter was interviewing a successful job counselor who had placed hundreds of workers in their vocations quite happily. When asked the secret of his success, the man replied: ?If you want to find out what a worker is really like, don't give him responsibilities-give him privileges. Most people can handle responsibilities if you pay them enough, but it takes a real leader to handle privileges. A leader will use his privileges to help others and build the organization; a lesser man will use privileges to promote himself.' Jesus used his heavenly privileges for the sake of others-for our sake."
Secondly, Jesus is our example in that he serves. ". . . taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." Jesus constantly served people throughout his life. He healed people; he fed people; he washed his disciples dirty feet. Jesus said of himself, ". . . the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve . . ." (Matthew 20:28)
During the War Between the States, General George B. McClellan was put in charge of the great Army of the Potomac, mainly because public opinion was on his side. He fancied himself to be a great military leader and enjoyed hearing the people call him "a Young Napoleon." However, his performance was less than sensational. President Lincoln commissioned him General-in-Chief, hoping this would get some action; but still he procrastinated. One evening, Lincoln and two of his staff members went to visit McClellan, only to learn that he was at a wedding. The three men sat down to wait, and an hour later the general arrived home. Without paying attention to the president, McClellan went upstairs and did not return. Half an hour later, Lincoln sent the servant to tell McClellan that the men were waiting. The servant came back to report McClellan had gone to bed!
His associates were angry, but Lincoln merely got up and led the way home. "This is no time to be making points of etiquette and personal dignity," the president explained. "I would hold McClellan's horse if he will only bring us success." That is the attitude of a servant. It was the attitude of Christ. And the Lord wants it to be our attitude as well.
Thirdly, Jesus is our example in that he sacrifices. "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!" Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice. He gave his life to pay the penalty for sinners like you and me. In one sense we cannot imitate his sacrifice. We cannot give our lives in payment for sinners because we ourselves are sinners. But we are called to carry our own crosses. Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Mark 8:34)
At a religious festival in Brazil, a missionary was going from booth to booth, examining the wares. He saw a sign above one booth: "Cheap Crosses." He thought to himself, "That's what many Christians are looking for these days-cheap crosses. My Lord's cross was not cheap. Why should mine be?" If you follow the example of Jesus you will sacrifice yourself for others, and that sacrifice will not be cheap.
Finally, Jesus is our example in that he glorifies God. The early Christian hymn which Paul quotes here tells us that because Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross, "Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." The ultimate purpose of Christ's life, death, resurrection, ascension and present reign is the glory, the honor of God. Right before his death Jesus said, "Father, the time has come; glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you." (John 17:1)
In the same way, if we follow Jesus' example, thinking of others, serving others, sacrificing for others, then it will ultimately lead to the glory of the Father. A son or daughter who has a good parent rejoices to see their parent honored. So, we too should count it joy that our Father in heaven should be honored through our sacrificial service. After all, he gave his Son so that we might live. Why then shouldn't we lay down our lives for him in return?
In the book, The Fire of Your Life, Maggie Ross recounts the story of Emma, a survivor of the Holocaust, who regularly at 4 p.m. each day stood outside a Manhattan church and screamed insults at Jesus. Finally, the pastor, Bishop C. Kilmer Myers, went outside and said to Emma, "Why don't you go inside and tell him?" She disappeared into the church. An hour went by, and the bishop, worried, decided to look in on her. He found Emma, prostrate before the cross, absolutely still. Reaching down, he touched her shoulder. She looked up with tears in her eyes and said quietly, "After all, he was a Jew, too."
When we realize how much Christ gave for us, how much he suffered for us, how can we not lay down our lives for him, to the glory of God the Father? We should do that. The problem is, we can't and we don't, in and of ourselves. I am not naturally a person who seeks unity. I am not naturally a humble and helpful person. I don't naturally want to follow the example of Jesus Christ. And neither do you. That is the essence of sin. We are so wrapped up in ourselves that we can't unravel our own self-centeredness. But thankfully, Jesus lived and died and rose again to free us from the prison of our own selfishness. And if he comes into your life by his Holy Spirit then he will free you too; he will free you to be one of those who bows the knee and confesses with the tongue that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Choose Joy through Sacrifice
Philippians 2:12-18
Along I-10 in Louisiana there used to be a large billboard which caught the eye of many a passerby. It stood high above the city just as you start up the Mississippi River bridge. On it was a picture of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross, head bowed. The caption underneath read in bold letters: "It's your move!"
How should we respond to Christ's sacrifice? Having focused on Christ's humiliation and exaltation in Philippians 2:5-11, Paul now calls upon his readers to respond to Christ's sacrifice for sinners. In Philippians 2:12-18 Paul tells us three things we need to do in response to Christ's sacrifice. Let's read together what Paul has to say on this subject. . . .
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16as you hold out the word of life--in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. 17But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
The first thing Paul says we need to do in response to Christ's sacrifice is to work out what God works in. Notice that Paul doesn't say work for your salvation, but rather, work out your salvation. Paul is writing to people who are already Christians. He is not telling them to earn their salvation by works. Rather, he is telling them and us to work out our salvation as an expression of love toward Jesus Christ who has already sacrificed himself for us. He wants us to work out our salvation to the finish. Salvation is not merely a gift received at one time. Salvation is an ongoing process in which we must be strenuously involved.
R. C. Sproul was crossing the campus of Temple University on his way to give a lecture on theology when he was accosted by a young man who asked him, "Sir, are you saved?" R.C. said he wanted to respond to the man by asking him, "Do you mean, ?Have I been saved?' or ?Am I being saved?' or ?Will I be saved?'"
You see, at the moment you trusted in Christ, you were saved from the penalty of sin. As you grow in a relationship with Christ through the Holy Spirit, you are being saved from the power of sin. And one day, when you stand before Christ in heaven you will be saved from the very presence of sin. What Paul is saying is that we need to work out that process of salvation to its rightful conclusion. And we need to do that not just as individuals, but together as the Body of Christ, the Church.
The good news is that we have help in this endeavor. "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." If God was not working in us by his Holy Spirit, our efforts at working out our salvation would be fruitless.
I love that scene in the movie Chariots of Fire where the runner, Eric Liddell, is preaching to a crowd of people standing on a race track on a rainy day. In his message he asks, "Where does the power come from to see the race through to the end?" And in the movie we see scenes of various runners falling down, or running out of energy in all sorts of horrible conditions. Then Eric Liddell answers his own question. He says, "The power comes from within. The kingdom of God is within you."
That's where the power comes from to see the race through to the end. It comes from the Holy Spirit living inside of us. We need to respond to what Christ has done for us in his life, death and resurrection, by working out the salvation that God has worked into us.
The second thing we need to do in response to Christ's sacrifice is to do everything without complaining or arguing. This language is borrowed from Old Testament descriptions of Israel complaining and arguing in the wilderness when Moses led them from Egypt to the Promised Land.
The Israelites complained to Moses that they were going to be destroyed by the Egyptians as they approached the Red Sea, but God parted the waters. Next they complained about only having bitter water to drink, but God made it sweet for them. They complained about not having enough food to eat, but God gave them manna. Then they complained about only having manna, so God gave them quail to eat. They complained about Moses and Aaron's leadership. The complaining went on and on, and it made their whole journey in the desert miserable.
I don't know whether I have shared this one with you before. But the story is told of a man who decided to join a monastery and one of the rules of the group was that you were only allowed to speak two words every ten years. At the end of the ten years he said, "Bad food!"
Ten more years went by and the monk said, "Hard bed!"
Finally, on his 30th anniversary in the monastery the monk said two more words: "I quit!" And the abbot in charge of the monastery said, "You might as well. You've been complaining ever since you got here!"
What kind of complaining and arguing do we see in the church? Charles Spurgeon tells the story of a heavy wagon being dragged along a country lane by a team of oxen. The axles groaned and creaked terribly. So the oxen turned around and spoke to the wheels, "Hey there, why do you make so much noise? We bear all the labor, and we-not you-ought to cry out!" Then Spurgeon goes on to apply the story to the church in this way. He says, "Those complain first in our churches who have the least to do. The gift of grumbling is largely dispensed among those who have no other talents, or who keep what they have wrapped in a napkin."
Why should you do everything without complaining or arguing? Paul says you should do this "so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life-in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing."
Here again, Paul is echoing an Old Testament passage, Daniel 12:2-3 . . .
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.
This passage in Daniel is one of the earliest references to the idea of the resurrection. Daniel is saying that if we lead others to the Lord in this life then we will shine like the stars forever in the day of resurrection.
Paul takes this same idea and turns it around a bit. He is basically saying: "If you do everything without complaining and arguing you will shine like a star, now, in a dark world." Paul hopes that unlike their spiritual ancestors, the Israelites, the Philippian Christians will prove not to be a crooked, depraved, and blemished generation, but a beacon of light for Christ in the midst of a faithless world.
A few days ago we were watching fireworks from our front lawn. It was the end of our local county fair. The night around us was so dark that the first blast of fireworks almost hurt our eyes, they were so bright! It made me think how many people's lives are like fireworks. They come to Christ and shine brightly for him for a short time--but then the light peters out, or maybe the Lord takes them home to heaven early in life. Rather than being like fireworks I think the Lord indeed wants us to be like the stars that shine for a long period of time--light years in fact! He wants us to shine for him over the long haul.
What do non-Christians think of the church when they see us complaining and arguing with one another? They think, "I don't want to have anything to do with that mess!"
Paul is saying that we should respond to Christ's sacrifice by not complaining and arguing with one another, so that we will be seen as blameless and pure by the watching world. How can we effectively hold out the word of life to people when it is obvious that this word of life has not changed our own lives? We can't. We need to clean up our own act before we presume to share the word of life with others.
Now don't get me wrong. None of us are ever going to be perfect until we stand before Jesus in heaven. But we need to pursue being blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation. If that is our pursuit then we will shine like stars in the universe as we hold out the word of life.
There are people around us who never open, who never read the Bible, but they are reading us. Are they able to see God in our lives? Are they able to say, "That person reminds me of Christ?" Do we let our light shine in such a way that people see, not us, but our Father in heaven?
The effect of the Christian life lived out in difficult situations is often quite dramatic and forceful in its impact on the non-Christian. An article appeared in Christianity Today many years ago about Christians in the Soviet Union. A former criminal, Kozlov, later a church leader, wrote of life in a Soviet prison:
"Among the general despair, while prisoners like myself were cursing ourselves, the camp, the authorities; while we opened up our veins or our stomachs, or hanged ourselves; the Christians (often with sentences of 20 to 25 years) did not despair. One could see Christ reflected in their faces. Their pure, upright life, deep faith and devotion to God, their gentleness and their wonderful manliness became a shining example of real life for thousands."
Now if Christians could shine like stars in the darkness of Soviet prison camps, don't you think we can shine like stars where we live by God's grace?
The third thing we need to do in response to Christ's sacrifice is to rejoice in sacrifice. Paul says, "But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me."
Paul talks about his life being like a drink offering. The drink offering in the Old Testament was an offering of wine or oil poured out on top of the sacrificial offering of a lamb or other animal. At this point in time, Paul was writing to the Philippians from jail in Rome, where he was imprisoned for his faith in Christ and awaiting trial before Caesar. Paul thought of the giving of his life as a little offering added on top of the big sacrifice of the Philippian Church. And Paul rejoiced in that sacrifice that he felt privileged to make. In fact, he uses the word rejoice four times in two verses. Paul counted it a blessing to share, in some small way, in the sufferings of Christ.
Do we look at suffering that way? Do we look at sacrifice that way? Do we rejoice in it? Warren Wiersbe says, "The world's philosophy is that joy comes from aggression: fight everybody to get what you want, and you will get it and be happy. The example of Jesus is proof enough that the world's philosophy is wrong. He never used a sword or any other weapon; yet He won the greatest battle in history-the battle against sin and death and hell. He defeated hatred by manifesting love; He overcame lies with truth. Because He surrendered He was victorious!"
Hebrews 12:2 says, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Jesus endured the cross because there was joy set before him, the joy of knowing that he was accomplishing our salvation through his death on the cross.
There is a two-fold joy that comes to the person who sacrifices self in order to follow Jesus' example. There is a joy hereafter and a joy here and now. Paul talks in verse 16 about being able to boast in the day of Christ that he did not run or labor for nothing. Paul was looking forward to the day when Christ would return and set up his eternal kingdom, and Paul was looking forward to the fruit of his labor - seeing the Philippian Christians in Christ's eternal kingdom. That is the joy hereafter. Are you going to know the joy hereafter? You can if you sacrifice now so that others can come to know Jesus in a personal way.
But joy can also be a present reality in the midst of our sacrifice. Normally we would associate the word sorrow with sacrifice, but Paul associates joy with sacrifice. I think what Paul rejoiced in was the opportunity to become more like Christ through the sacrifice of his life for the good news.
When the starter raised the gun and said, "On your mark, get set . . ." it looked like every other hundred-meter dash. The contestants were lined up in the starting blocks. The crowd was on the edge of their chairs in keen anticipation.
When the starter fired the gun, the contestants sprang out of the starting blocks, and even the casual observer could tell something was different. This was the Special Olympics. It was special because the contestants were developmentally and physically disabled.
It was special for a far greater reason than that. It was special because of the way that hundred-meter dash was run. The runners moved down the track shoulder-to-shoulder. Suddenly one of the young women sprawled headlong on the track and turned over in some amount of pain and embarrassment.
The rest of the contestants moved on for ten or fifteen meters. Without any communication among themselves, they all stopped, turned around, and jogged back to their fallen friend. They picked her up off the track, comforted her, and then arm in arm they ran together to the finish line. Those runners would rather finish together than win the race individually.
Did that require sacrifice for those runners to stop, go back, and pick up their fallen friend? You bet! Was there joy in the race and at the end? Yes, I imagine that their joy was greater because of their sacrifice.
Paul sacrificed his life by going around, picking up people who were fallen down in sin, and introducing them to the Savior, Jesus Christ. The Christians in Philippi did the same. And by so doing, they discovered joy in the midst of sacrifice.
Are you sacrificing your time, your talent, your treasure, by picking people up off the ground and introducing them to the one and only person who can help them run and finish the race to heaven? If so, you will be finding joy in the journey. If so, you will be working out the salvation that God has worked into you. And if your eyes are focused on helping others find the Savior, you won't have time to argue or complain.
The challenge in all of this is that the Christian life is not a thing of the moment. The Christian life is something that must be lived out over the long haul. Fred Craddock captured the essence of this sacrifice in an address to ministers:
"To give my life for Christ appears glorious. To pour myself out for others . . . to pay the ultimate price of martyrdom-I'll do it. I'm ready, Lord, to go out in a blaze of glory.
"We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table-'Here's my life, Lord. I'm giving it all.'
"But the reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor kid's troubles instead of saying, ?Get lost.' Go to a committee meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home.
"Usually giving our life to Christ isn't glorious. It's done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it's harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul."
And because the self-sacrifice required to live the Christian life over the long haul is hard to muster, even impossible to muster by human standards, that's why we need God's grace and power.

Choose Joy through Humility
Philippians 2:19-30
Mac Davis sang a country song a number of years ago ...
"O Lord, it's hard to be humble
When you're perfect in every way.
I can't wait to look in the mirror
Cause I get better lookin' each day.
To know me is to love me.
I must be a heck of a man.
O Lord, it's hard to be humble
But I'm doing the best that I can."
There was only one problem with that song - it was wrong. God's Word tells us that it isn't hard to be humble; it's impossible to be humble apart from Christ. It is against our sin nature to be humble. In Romans 1:29-30 we learn that sinful human beings have become "filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful."
Howard Butt has written, "The Christian life is not difficult . . . it is impossible." Only Christ can give us the power to be truly humble. Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:29)
What is humility? Dag Hammerskojld has written, "To be humble is to not make comparisons." Humility then is the belief that we are incomparable. When we stop comparing ourselves with others then we have begun to discover true humility. The person who is always putting themselves down is just as involved with self as the person who is always boasting. When we discover our true identity in Christ that frees us to forget about self and start thinking of Christ and others. If we are constantly comparing ourselves to others, either trying to put self on a higher plane, a lower plane, or an equal plane, then we still haven't gotten free of self.
In Paul's letter to the church at Philippi we saw two weeks ago how humility and helpfulness promote unity. We read in Philippians 2:3-4, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."
Then Paul proceeded in chapter 2 to present Christ as an example of humility. Following his hymn to Christ he also subtly presented his own life as an example. Now he presents Timothy and Epaphroditus as examples of humility. Let's read together Philippians 2:19-30 ...
I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.
But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me.
Timothy's life shows us four things we can do to grow in humility. First of all, we need to learn from a mentor.
Paul begins by writing, "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you." Paul has a pragmatic purpose in mentioning Timothy- he wants to alert the Philippians that he will be sending Timothy soon to check up on them and to take them news of how he, Paul, is faring in prison. But Paul also has a teaching purpose in mentioning Timothy, it gives him the opportunity to present Timothy's life as a profile in humility, further fleshing out his teaching about humility from chapter 2.
So Paul goes on to say, "I have no one else like him," or more literally, "For I have no one like-minded." Timothy was of a like mind as Paul. Whatever Timothy would say to the Philippians would be exactly what Paul would say. This was the case because Timothy had learned from Paul as his mentor. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that Timothy also learned humility from Paul.
Think back to how Timothy first came in contact with the Apostle Paul. We read in Acts 14:8 and following that Paul and Barnabus came to Lystra, a city in what is now the nation of Turkey. In Lystra Paul healed a man crippled from birth. As a result, a crowd gathered and they started to worship Paul and Barnabus as if they were gods. Paul tried to explain to the people that they weren't gods and he tried to tell them about the true God. Then some Jews, who had persecuted Paul in Iconium and Antioch, came along, won the crowd over, had Paul stoned, dragged him out of town and left him for dead. The Lord, however, raised up Paul. And as if that weren't enough - Paul went back into the city to preach again! This was probably Timothy's first introduction to the Apostle Paul. Timothy would have been a very young man at the time, possibly still a teenager. And his first introduction to the Apostle Paul showed forth Paul's humility in suffering.
Then we read in Acts 16 that Paul came back to Lystra on his second missionary journey. He found Timothy, who by this time was a disciple. He had either come to Christ through hearing Paul or through the witness of his mother or grandmother. Timothy was well spoken of by the other Christians. And so Paul decided to take him along on his second missionary journey.
Timothy was the son of a Greek, though his mother was Jewish. Consequently, he had never been circumcised. So as not to stir up the Jews in the area, Paul had Timothy circumcised before he took him along on his journey. Talk about humility - submitting to circumcision as an adult!
From that time forward Timothy continued to learn humility through having Paul as his mentor. Timothy was thrust into challenging ministry situations such as the time when Paul left Timothy behind in Berea to teach the new Christians there. Later on, when Timothy joined Paul in Corinth, Paul put him in charge of teaching the Greeks.
When I was in high school I joined the teen choir in our church. The choir was made up of high school and college age students. One of our assignments in the teen choir was to pick someone else in the choir to be a prayer partner. I approached a college age guy by the name of Bill Snyder and asked him to be my prayer partner. Bill became a mentor to me in many ways.
When I was in high school I was a fairly shy person. Youth group was the one place where I felt more comfortable and accepted. But in my insecurity I tended to act out a lot in youth group. My humor was a bit off-color at times. Bill Snyder was the one person who had the courage and the love to talk with me about my behavior. He let me know that I didn't need to act out in order to be accepted. He told me I could be myself. After that conversation I did relax more. I matured. All because I had a good mentor.
If you want to learn humility - learn from a mentor. Do you have a mentor - a more mature Christian from whom you are learning humility? If not, why not seek one out from among the people in this church?
Secondly, we learn from Timothy that he grew in humility by developing a concern for others. Literally, Paul tells us that Timothy was burdened for others. Paul writes, "I have no one else like-minded, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare." How did Timothy develop this concern for others? The word for genuine which Paul uses literally means "a legitimate son." Timothy was a legitimate son of Paul in that he ministered to the people in Philippi and other places, right along side of his father in the faith - Paul. Secondly, Timothy probably followed Paul's example by praying continually for those whom the Lord had given him to serve.
Developing true concern for others is antithetical to what our society teaches us today. The television show Survivor is an example of this. That show has been watched millions of people. I am one of the few people who hasn't ever watched Survivor. The very first Survivor was about the competition between 16 real-life hand-picked castaways purposely marooned for 39 days on a tropical island in the South China Sea. While the diverse group of castaways banded together in alliances to "survive," they also voted each other off the island until only one remained. The final survivor won one million dollars and a new car. The show revealed some things we don't often like to face about our human nature. When push comes to shove we are all consumed with looking out for ourselves first.
How can we break out of the web of selfishness in which we all are caught? What can we do to grow in our concern for others? Praying for others is a good place to start. In the second message of this series I suggested praying for all the people in the church each week using Philippians 1:9-11 as a model. Secondly, look for needs in the congregation and in individual people's lives and see what you can do to fill those needs. Find a need and fill it. You don't have to wait for someone in leadership to ask you to perform a ministry in the church. Look for needs. And if someone is not filling that need, you start a new ministry!
Thirdly, we learn that Timothy developed humility by putting Christ first. Paul says, "For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ." How much does this sound like us? It sounds a lot like me, and you may see a lot of yourself in this statement. But Timothy wasn't like this, he didn't look out primarily for his own interests, rather, he put Christ first. Jesus once said to his disciples, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things [clothing and food] will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33) If you put Christ first in your life you will find that everything else falls into place. Remember, Jesus -- Others -- and You is a wonderful way to spell JOY!
Fourthly, Timothy developed humility by learning to work with others. "But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel." Timothy learned to work under Paul's authority, but he also learned to serve with Paul in the work of the Gospel.
How do things go when you are called upon to work with others, especially in the church? Do you have to be in charge? Does it have to be your project? Do you know how to work with someone who is younger than you, or someone wh | |
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