Overcoming anxiety and depression

 Phil. 4:6-9

I’ve titled today’s message “overcoming anxiety and depression.”  God gave me the outline for today’s message about 15 years ago, but this is the first time it has been preached.  By way of introduction of this topic, about 17 years ago, I was a fairly successful antique dealer. I had finally found something in life that I enjoyed doing, and was pretty good at doing, and that also enabled me to make pretty good money doing it.  It was a unique situation I enjoyed which I believed I was blessed by God to have.  I believed I was living for the Lord, and I also thought that my job, my family and my finances were indicative of God’s blessings on my life and were somehow connected to the fact that I was a born again Christian who was trying to serve God.  I began to get more and more involved in my church and was teaching Sunday School and participating in various ministries the church was doing.  Life was pretty good. I built a big, all brick, Colonial Williamsburg reproduction style home on eight acres out Harford County Maryland and proceeded to acquire all the nice things that you would associate with that comfortable kind of life.

It wasn’t long though before I began to have a series of medical issues that seemed to be innocuous enough at first, but over time seemed to start snowballing.  I think the first thing I got was lyme disease.  I had it for a while before it was properly diagnosed.  Not long after that, I found out I had strep throat and because it had gone undetected for some time it was thought to have caused a more serious disease.  That was followed by several other illnesses that I dealt with during that time, but I will spare you all the details.   The end result was that after several months of being sick that at one point I was anxiously awaiting yet another blood test for yet another weird disease and during the ten days or so that I was waiting my anxiety reached the boiling point, and I started experiencing extreme panic attacks.  If you have never had a panic attack then it is kind of hard to imagine what it was like.  It is a feeling that overwhelms your senses as completely and suddenly as if you were really high on a drug trip, but rather than feeling euphoric, you feel absolutely panicked.  Sometimes it may feel as if you are having a heart attack.  It might be combined with other symptoms like  shortness of breath, difficulty swallowing, feeling dizzy, claustrophia, headaches, rashes and stiffness in the neck and shoulders.  I had all those symptoms and more and it seemed to get worse day after day.  In a relatively short time I became more or less completely traumatized.  I lost 35 pounds.  I developed psoriasis over much of my body.  My toenails at one point turned black and fell off.  I reached a point where I couldn’t function, couldn’t really drive or fly or be alone.

I went to the doctor and he listened to all my symptoms and determined that I was suffering from a form of depression.  I was surprised to find out that in the medical profession they considered panic attacks a form of depression.  The doctor prescribed an anti-depressant drug that he assured me would help my condition.  He also counseled me on some other things I could do, such as with my diet and so forth that he thought would help my condition and multiple symptoms. Initially, I was very relieved.  I purchased the medicine and went home and told my wife all that had transpired at the doctor’s office.  But when I told her about the medicine, she expressed concern about the possible side effects.  She has a sister that is bipolar, and so she had first hand experience in how certain psychological medicines can cause both short term and long term adverse side effects.  So after prayer and deliberation, we decided not to use medicine to deal with my condition.  The long and short of it was that over next few years I immersed myself in the Word of God and prayer.  I also began eating better and exercising regularly, but my primary prescription was found in the Word of God.   In particular, this passage that we are looking at today in Philippians was one of the principal scriptures that God most effectively used to get me through that time.  But let me stress that it was a process.  I would have loved to have been instantly healed but it did not happen.  In fact, during those  years I suffered from this I ended up losing my career, losing my house, my cars, all my antiques.  For a long time I was unable to work and having no financial back up we sold off just about everything we owned.  We found ourselves at the bottom of the barrel, so to speak.  We went through an extended time when there was great difficulty in keeping food on the table for my wife and three kids. The genuineness of my faith was tested to the very limit.  I didn’t understand why God allowed all this to happen in my life.  And I seriously began to fear that I was losing my sanity.

Now I tell you all of this reluctantly, but to express the dire situation that I was in, in the hope that my story will help you realize that if there was hope for me, then there is hope for you.  You may not be going through anything similar to what I went through.  You may not ever have had a panic attack.  But I will say that it is very likely that at some point in your life you are going to come to a point when like the song we just sang says, “when all around my soul gives way.”  Things you thought you could count on fell apart.  People you count on fall away.  Stress becomes overwhelming.  Sickness or even death comes knocking on your door in a way that completely tears your world apart.  And when that day comes, then maybe this message will have helped to prepare you. Some of you, however, know exactly what I’m talking about today and have been looking for answers.  And the first place most of us go is to the medical profession looking for help.

Depression in America has reached epidemic proportions. According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, there are a number of different names that are associated with these disorders. Here are just a few  examples; Generalized Anxiety Disorder affects 6.8 million adults, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder affects 2.2 million people, Panic Disorder 6 million people, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder affects7.7 million, Social Anxiety Disorder 15 million, Specific Phobias 19 million, Major Depressive Disorder affects approximately 14.8 million American adults. And that’s just for starters.  According to the CDC 1 in 10 Americans over the age of 12 take antidepressant medication.  There was also another study that shows 1 in 10 Americans suffer  from depression.  Another government study revealed that antidepressants have become the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. They're prescribed more than drugs to treat high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, and headaches.  Unfortunately, these drugs don’t cure a person of these disorders, they simply treat the symptoms, and in many cases are putting a band aid on a condition that will continue and in many cases get worse.  Often we try to self medicate ourselves with alcohol and drugs in an attempt to calm our anxieties or make ourselves feel more comfortable or to be able to go to sleep.  And yet, sooner or later that backfires.  We end up addicted to substances on top of the psychological problems that we have and it just exacerbates the whole problem.

But regardless of what type of fear or stress or anxiety or depression that you may be suffering from,  this message today is for you.  I can tell you with all confidence that these principles in this passage we are looking at today will work because they get at the root of the problem and just don’t treat the symptoms.  They probably won’t result in an instantaneous healing, or an instantaneous righting of all your circumstances, but if you apply these principles in your life, as if your life depends upon them(which they do) then God will not fail to perform according to His promises.  This passage offers us hope for a true deliverance.

Now let’s look at the passage.  It says in vs. 6, “Be anxious for nothing.”  That is the principle.  You could even say that is the command.  It is certainly the ideal pattern for the Christian walk, to have no fear, whatever the circumstances may be.  And Paul speaks from a lifetime of experience, which by contrast puts my paltry experiences to shame.  He suffered so much, from shipwrecks to prisons, to beatings, to even being stoned, and in fact was writing from prison at the time of this letter.  He knew what he was talking about.  And so the principle is overcoming anxiety.  Overcoming fear.  Overcoming depression, stress and a whole host of  related circumstances you may find yourself in.

But thankfully he doesn’t just leave us with the statement “Don’t be anxious.”  Nothing used to tick me off like someone that would just glibly dismiss my anxieties with the advice “don’t worry, it will all work out.”  But rather, Paul gives us 4 steps to overcoming fear, overcoming anxiety and depression.  And they are found right here in this passage.  Number one, the first step is to pray, in vs. 6.  Number 2, is to ponder, or to think, and that is found in vs. 8.  Number 3, those things you have pondered, Paul says you now need to practice, vs. 9.  And number 4, after you have prayed, pondered and practiced, God promises peace, vs. 9 again.

So let’s look at number one, prayer.  Vs. 6; “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  The first thing needed is prayer.  From a human standpoint, we don’t understand prayer.  It is one of those mysteries of our faith that requires just that – faith.   Faith in believing that God hears you and that He loves you and wants what is best for you.  Some people want to approach prayer with some sort of formula. If you say it in just the right way, with just the right amount of thanks in it, and by all means be sure to say, “In Jesus name Amen” at the end, and if you muster up all your will power and believe with all your might that God will do what you want Him to do, then God will give you exactly what you asked for.  They think prayer is a procedure by which we tell God what to do and if we do it correctly, God is obligated to do it.  It’s an attempt to manipulate God from a position of control.  But the correct posture of prayer is that of a supplicant, realizing God is in control.

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to say all that I would like about prayer this morning.  This verse shows three ingredients of prayer; supplication, thanksgiving, and requests or petitions.  But Paul isn’t giving us a formula here.  He is merely telling us that in everything we should pray to our Heavenly Father.  We have instant access to the Creator of the Universe.  I’ll tell you the secret to effective prayer.  It’s found in James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”  The reason your prayer is effective is predicated by the fact that you are made righteous by the shed blood of Christ.  Be sure that there is no sin in your life that is hindering your prayers.  But once you have cleared  your conscience of anything sinful in your life, then it says be fervent about it.  Energeo is the Greek word, and you can hear how that sounds like energize.  Listen, I can tell you how I learned to pray in those days of my meltdown, and I still pray that way a lot of times today.  I go to a place where I can pray aloud, and I get on my knees before the throne of grace and I grab on to the legs of the throne and I begin to call out to God with all my energy.  I hold onto that throne and I say like Jacob “Lord, I am not going to let go until you bless me.”  I remind the Lord of all His promises that He has written in His Word, and I recount every aspect of my situation, and I talk to Him like He is literally standing in front of me.  I beseech Him.  I cry out to Him.  And I don’t stop until I can’t pray anymore or until He answers me.  Many, many nights I was up until 3am praying, freaking out, holding onto that throne with all my grip, pleading with God to help me.

Folks, we need to learn to pray like that.  We need to pray for our kids like that.  We need to pray for the salvation of our loved ones like that. We need to pray for revival like that.  I routinely pray now when I run.  And most of the time I am running through this long road that goes through a wooded area.  And I just pray out loud.  Sometimes I am calling out as I’m running, sometimes I am crying out to God, sometimes I am even angry about something that I don’t understand and I am letting God and the squirrels and the deer and everything else that is out there in the woods know about it.  But folks, I believe that is how we should pray.  Fervently.  There isn’t some formula.  Just pray with all your energy.

Jesus gave a parable in Luke 18 about a king and a widow that kept coming to him asking him to help her with her opponent.  And I like what the King said. “Yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'" And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?”  Listen, we need to pray until the cows come home.  We don’t pray to an unrighteous judge, we pray to the righteous King Eternal, who also happens to be our heavenly Father. Jesus prayed all night on several occasions. So much more should we. Let’s get fervent about prayer.
Number 2, ponder. Vs. 8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.”  These disorders that we are talking about today are all disorders of the mind, aren’t they?  These disorders are the result of wrong thinking.  And so what Paul is saying here is that we need to reprogram our minds with the truth.  When I was suffering from panic attacks, the constant refrain that my mind was stuck on was “what if…what if…”  It was like a having one of the old 33 rpm records that had a deep scratch in it.  And once it got stuck in that scratch, it would play the same thing over and over and over again.

There are a lot of things that can contribute to that scratch if you will, in our minds.  This rut of wrong thinking is many times the result of the kind of garbage we are feeding our minds on hour after hour, day after day.  The world is constantly shoving it’s propaganda to us, via our televisions, our computers, our mp3 players, our car radios.  We are plugged into the polluted message of the world all day long.  Some people even sleep with it on.  And then we wonder why we  are overwhelmed by these negative thoughts.  But folks, the answer is not just a good dose of positive thinking, but proper thinking.  And proper thinking is found in God’s word.

Paul starts off with think about “whatever things are true,”  and he ends up the verse with if there is anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.  Ponder these things.   You know, before I developed this disorder, I went to church twice a week, tithed 10% and I read my Bible every morning before I went to work.  I read at least a chapter every morning.  Boy, I thought I was killing the whole Christian thing. But let me tell you what.  After I found myself in the throes of never ending panic attacks, I started to really read the Bible.  I read multiple books of the Bible in a single day.  Sometimes I read most of the New Testament in one day.  I read the entire Psalms almost every night aloud, crying and praying each verse out loud to God.  By the way, I believe King David, a man after God’s own heart, who wrote most of the Psalms, I believe that very David suffered from depression.  I believe he suffered from anxiety attacks.  And so I would encourage you to read the Psalms.  Read them aloud and deliberately reprogram your mind.

Listen, you have to start telling yourself the truth. The mind is the battleground between the spirit and the flesh, did you know that?  Man was made at creation in the image of God who was a triune being and so we were made spirit, soul and body.  Some people confuse the soul and spirit and don’t know what the difference is.  The spirit of man is the divine spark that God gave us originally that allowed man to have fellowship with God.  It was what made us alive spiritually, able to commune with God.  But the soul is the essence of man, the mind, the will, the seat of the emotions.  And of course, we know what our body is.  Now at the fall, the spirit of man died because of sin.  And our fellowship with God was broken.  We could not know God through our mind (our soul) or through any actions of our body.  So in our fallen state, the order of creation was reversed, and we became governed by the passions of our bodies, which controlled our minds.  We became enslaved to our passions.  Our spirit was dead.  Salvation then resulted in being born again, not of the flesh, but of the spirit.  And the spirit is life.  We are made righteous through faith in Christ, and made alive in our spirit by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Now though the spirit is born again, we are alive in Christ, yet our minds, our soul, is still in our body.  And our fleshly body is still corrupted.  However, that is why Romans 12 tells us that we are to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.”  And that the will of God is that we are to present our bodies as a sacrifice to  God.  So, in the new order of becoming a Christian, I submit my mind to the Spirit of Christ,  renewing my mind by what the Spirit teaches me through the Word, and I discipline my body, sacrifice the desires of my body, crucify  the passions of my body and make it my slave.  No longer am I to be a slave of my body.  But I am to make my body the slave of my mind, my mind being obedient to the Spirit.

But the battleground continues to be the mind.  Even once your are a Christian Satan is going to attack you in the flesh, and try to deceive your mind through your flesh once again.  And so our defense is the truth of God’s Word. Eph 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH.”  The truth is found in God’s Word.  His promises are sure and will not fail.  And you need to deliberately,  constantly putting God’s word, this truth into your mind.

When I was under attack, I took note cards and wrote down on each card a verse of scripture that was a promise from God to keep me and protect me.  I had about 30 of them wrapped in a rubber band that I carried all the time in my pocket.  I can remember many times having to pull over on the side of the road and read through my cards a few times until I was able to go on.  I remember the first time after I had become sick that I tried to fly in an airplane.  I was wearing those cards out, I can tell you.  Every phobia I had was in full alert and I was fighting back with everything I had, which was the Word of God.

Thirdly, practice.  Vs. 9; “The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things.”  Listen, faith isn’t knowledge, it’s not wishful thinking, it’s obedience to step out and do what is commanded of you to do.  The scripture is not meant to be a bunch of words like hocus pocus, we just say them and poof, magic happens.  No, the Word of God is instructions.  It tells us how to act, what to say, how to think.  It tells us promises of God that we are to believe in and act upon.  Before your mind is in a rut.  Now we have to reprogram our minds through practice, going over and over again the truths of God.

You know, if you want to get good at basketball, you go to the gym and practice.  You work at your foul shot.  You dribble.  Now you do all this stuff before the game.  You don’t just show up to the game and expect to play well.  You practice whether you feel like it or not.  You rehearse how you should think.  You act out how you are supposed to act.  In other words, you don’t wait till you feel like it.  You begin with actions, and the feelings will eventually catch up.  You begin to act in faith to what God has promised in His word.  It may be small steps at first.  You might be frightened half out of your mind.  But believing in what God has promised, armed with your verses in your pocket, you begin to step out in faith regardless of how you feel.  Let me tell you something.   Feelings lie.  Don’t listen to your feelings.  Listen to the truth of God’s Word and then act in faith as if you felt like it, and soon enough you will find that you will have faith.  I’m not telling you to believe you can jump off a 5 story building or something foolish.  I’m telling you that you have to act on the promises of God that are written in His word.  Don’t act on what some well meaning friend may have counseled you.  Act on what God has promised to you and written down so that you might  know his instructions. And by acting on God’s promises, we cut a new groove in our minds of proper thinking according to what God has said.

Finally, number four, if you pray, ponder and practice and you will know peace.  And listen folks, this isn’t just some peace found in a sleeping pill, or bottle of whiskey, or even the peace that comes through a prescription, this is so much better than that.  This is the peace of God, he says in vs. 7; “which surpasses all comprehension, which will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  I love that verse.  Because what it says is that He will give you a peace that passes understanding.  You can’t understand it, but there is a sense of peace that God gives to those that really put their trust in Him.  You may have to learn to trust in Him.  Learning to trust in Him is a process that sometimes can take a long time.  We learn to trust Him when we pray, we read His Word, we ponder His Word, then we obey His Word,  and we practice His Word, then we get peace because we have proven His Word.  See, it’s one thing to say something is true, and intellectually believe it, but it is another thing to prove something is true.  And in these kinds of distresses, as we go through them we end up proving that God is true, that He can be trusted.  And that equips us for tomorrow.  Because more difficulties are going to come again tomorrow.  Jesus said, everyday has difficulties.  But what you have proven to be true today will make tomorrow’s difficulties easier to go through.

Jam 1:2  “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” When you run, you increase your endurance by pushing through the pain, stretching yourself.  And the next day you find you can run further.  One of the reasons that I think we have such an increase in psychological disorders today is because we somehow have been taught to think that life is supposed to be free of trials.  Everything is supposed to be easy, everything is supposed to work out. Especially if you are a Christian.  I don’t know how we were taught this, but it’s false.  Maybe we can blame it on Disney.  The truth is, life is difficult.  We don’t always know why, or the source of our difficulties.  We sometimes don’t even know if God is doing it to us, or if Satan is doing it.  

James 1:13 “Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”  But it goes on to say we are tempted by our own lust. In other words, it goes back to that fallen body again, that is pulling at us, tempting us, calling us.  And then Satan is called the Tempter in scripture, isn’t he?  Satan tempts us, and sometimes he is given liberty to test us.  Job went through a great deal of trials that were brought about through no fault of his own, but through Satan.  However, one thing we can know  is that God promises to use even evil for our good. Rom. 8:28, “And we know that God causes ALL things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  And what is God’s purpose in calling us?  The next verse says He predestined us to become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. God is using these circumstances to prove you, to mold you into the image of Jesus Christ.

Listen, I’ll say it again.  Your mind is the battleground between the Spirit and the flesh.  You are going to have to choose who you will listen to. Are you going to submit to the lies of the flesh or the truth of the Spirit? There is an interesting word that is found in vs. 7, in the Greek it’s phroureo, which means kept in a garrison.  God will guard your mind and heart in a fort, a garrison.  Your mind is a fort.  And the Holy Spirit stands watch over it.  But  you have control over the gate.  You can either submit to the Spirit or to the flesh. Every bad thought that comes we are to take  captive to Christ.  Listen to 2 Cor. 10: 3 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.  We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.”

Well, I must close.  There is so much here that I feel that I could go on for another hour.  But I will just close by saying that here in Phil. 4 God confirms to us twice that He is able to give us peace that passes all understanding if we are obedient to the instructions that He provides in His Word. In vs. 7 we see the peace of God, and in vs. 9 we see the God of peace.  It’s like two pieces of bread that make up the sandwich. I don’t want to downplay the seriousness of mental disorders and fears and phobias.  I know the seriousness of them.  But I also know the peace of God that comes from having proven God to be faithful to the promises found in His Word as I walk in obedience to those promises.  One day Jesus is coming back for those that are His, and He is going to wipe away all tears, and dispel forever all fears.  He is going to replace this fallen body with a body that cannot be broken, that is no longer fallen, but remade in His likeness.  That’s the ultimate purpose of God, to make us into His likeness, and restore our fellowship with Him the way it was originally intended in the garden.  Until then, let the Spirit guard the garrison of our hearts and minds, let’s take every thought captive to obedience to what Christ has promised us, and let’s destroy those speculations that undermine our faith.  And the peace of God will encircle the garrison of our minds like a moat surrounds the castle.

perseverance

Phil. 4: 1-9

Paul says in verse one that the Philippians were his joy and crown.  And what he is referring to here with word crown is the crown of achievement, or the wreath that was given to the victor in a race.  This sentiment is the true passion of the pastor.  A pastor is crowned by his congregation.  If he is a true shepherd of the flock then their spiritual well being is his joy and crown.  Their spiritual maturity is what he is working for.  To see them mature, to come to completion, as we looked at last week.  To see them still standing firm for the faith some years down the road.

I’ve said before that one of my biggest disappointments and discouragements in the ministry is to see members of the fellowship fall away.  To see them become less than they should be.  To see them fall back into sin, to wander back into the world.  Or to see them opt out of the fellowship for a more socially palatable gospel.  They come so far with you, and then they get their feathers ruffled over something or another, and leave to find another fellowship where they can have their ears tickled.  That is very discouraging for a pastor and it was the great fear of Paul for the church at Philippi as well.

And so Paul is going to finish up this last chapter of his letter to the church at Philippi by encouraging them to stand firm.  He wants nothing more than to be able to hear a report in the future that they are still standing firm in the faith.  This goal may be expressed in many ways, but no matter how you say it, it all comes down to perseverance.  It is a common theme in all Paul’s epistles.  Because Paul realized that just because you became saved does not mean that the enemy gave up on you.  No, if anything, the enemy redoubles his efforts on the one that commits to live for Jesus Christ as Lord.  Satan wants to undermine your faith, ruin your testimony, hinder your witness, deceive you by false doctrine, and ultimately destroy your life.  He may not be able to destroy your spirit anymore, but he can definitely destroy your life, and in the process perhaps do more to hinder the kingdom of heaven through you than he did when you were unsaved.

 Paul realizes that is a very real danger for every Christian.  That’s why he started out the epistle in 1:27 urging the church to  “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”    In chapter 2:16 Paul adds, “hold fast the word of life,” so that he would not have run in vain or toiled in vain in his leadership of them.

This admonition to hold fast, to stand firm, to persevere is often repeated in all his epistles because it is such an essential concern for all Christians.  In Rom. 2:7 Paul speaks “to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.” In 1Cor. 15:58 he pleads with the Corinthian church to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”  And again in 1Cor. 16:13 he warns them to “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”  To the church in Galatia Paul commands that  “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” To the church at Ephesus Paul admonishes that they should “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might,” and that they should “put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”

And I would submit to you here this morning, to this church at Bethany Beach, to stand firm in the Lord.  Having done everything, to stand firm.  To persevere unto the end.  You’re going to be attacked.  You’re going to be knocked down from time to time.  You’re going to stumble from time to time.  You’re going to be discouraged from time to time.  But, I urge you, persevere.  Stand fast.  Keep on keeping on.  You will get tired, but don’t ever quit.  The prize of the upward call of Christ Jesus that we looked at in chapter 3 is coming soon.  It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.

So I urge you, I encourage you to persevere in the faith.  And in today’s text we will look at how Paul encourages us to persevere.  There are going to be attacks by the devil, there are going to be discouragements and distractions that will come.  But persevere.  And there is a secret to perseverance that Paul wants to share, and it’s found in three little words.  Those three words are “in the Lord.”  Verse one, Paul says “stand firm in the Lord.”  In verse 2, Paul says, “live in harmony in the Lord.”  In verse 4, he says, “Rejoice in the Lord.”  And in verse 6, he says “trust in the Lord.”  And if we can learn these principles, then we can learn the secret of perseverance.

First, let’s consider “stand firm in the Lord.”   There is a little Greek word that is almost overlooked in vs.  1 which is houtō.  It may be interpreted in your Bible as “so”, or “in this way.”  I like “in this way” because I think it is more descriptive.  The NIV renders it “that is how you should stand firm in the Lord.”  And I think that what is being said here is a reference to all that has come before this verse, and all that follows this verse.  This little letter of all these admonitions by Paul, these warnings are instructive of how you are to stand firm in the Lord.  He is referring back to chapter 3, saying that perseverance encompasses forgetting what lies behind, and pressing forward to what lies ahead, being conformed to the image of Christ, being conformed to the sufferings of Christ, being conformed to the death of Christ, all of which is part of truly knowing Christ.  Not just knowing only one narrow element about Christ, but knowing all that Christ was and came to do.

Many people fall away from Christ because they refuse to accept all that Christ is.  They may like the love part, but they refuse to accept the rest of what it means to know Christ.  That we are to be conformed to His death.  In other words, we die to sin.  We consider ourselves dead to sin.  And to know Christ means we need to be conformed to the power of his resurrection.  That means we need to live a new life in Christ.  Romans 6 says we aren’t to continue in sin so that grace may abound, but we are to live in the power of a new life.  Old things are passed away and all things become new.  So standing firm means standing firm in the knowledge of Christ.

And that brings us to the phrase, in the Lord. Standing firm in the knowledge of the truth about Christ. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except by Me.”  John 14:6.  Standing firm in the Lord is nothing less than standing firm in the truth.  Ephesians 6:13 talks about putting on the armor of God and says, “and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH.”  The truth of God undergirds our faith. It supports our faith.  It is the most essential part of our armor.  If we are to stand firm, then we need to know what the Bible teaches about Christ.

Last Wednesday night at our Bible study in 1 Timothy we saw at the end of chapter 3 that the church is to be the pillar and support of the truth. Rev. 14:12 says, “Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.”  Knowing the truth of Christ gives us the strength to persevere in Christ.

Listen folks, make no mistake.  Standing firm in the Lord means persevering in obedience to the truth of His Word.  It means deliberately, strategically, systematically putting yourself under the teaching of sound doctrine.  It means studying for yourself to find out what the Bible says concerning our faith.  It means being obedient to what God shows you in the Bible.  And it means being diligent about it.  You know, you can’t be a good athlete or a good business man, or a good salesperson, or whatever it is that you might aspire to be, you can’t be good at it without applying yourself to it diligently.  What makes you think that you can grow in the Lord and mature in the Lord, to be found faithful in the Lord unless you are also diligent about studying His word?  Far too many Christians come to  faith like my friend Dave alluded to the other day, they take a little of this that they have heard from over here, and a little of that that they have heard over there, and a little of this they saw in a movie, and a little of that they read in a book, and a dash or two of verses taken out of context from the Bible, and throw them all in a blender and that is their faith.  That’s not going to be the kind of faith that will persevere, that will stand firm against the schemes of the devil. The devil loves to come across those sort of blender Christians.  They aren’t committed to anything.  They  go here and there like Paul warned in Ephesians 4, they are tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine, and when the storm hits, they fall apart because their doctrine wasn’t founded upon the truth, but rather upon speculation and ear tickling false doctrine.  So to stand firm in the Lord we need to know the truth about Christ by knowing what the Bible teaches about the gospel of Christ.

Secondly, verse 2 teaches that in order to persevere, we must live in harmony in the Lord.  The word in the Greek for harmony is phroneo;  it means harmonious, of the same mind.  We don’t know who Euodia and Syntyche were.  We do know they were two women in the church at Philippi, and the implication is that there was a disagreement between them that had become so well known that it was disrupting the church.  It wasn’t a secret anymore.  In fact, there were probably others that had started to take up sides.  Clement is mentioned, as well as others that had been fellow workers there with Paul.  And it was tearing the church apart.

But rather than speculate about what might have been the problem between these two factions, let’s just focus on the solution to disagreements in the body.  There are going to be disagreements in the body of Christ, did you know that?  We may have been made righteous and perfect before God positionally, but practically, we are all still in the flesh.  And if we’re not careful, that old fleshly nature that we were supposed to daily put to death will come back with a vengeance and take us away from unity in the Spirit.  The solution is to sometimes agree to disagree.  When there are disagreements over peripheral doctrines, or some side issue, or you somehow felt as if someone slighted you, or whatever the problem may have been, you need to submit yourself to one another as unto the Lord and continue to persevere.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians in regards to people in the church arguing with one another and even taking one another to court, he says, “Why not rather be wronged?”  “Why not rather be defrauded?”  Listen, there is no wound that cuts deeper than that of a friend.  But Philippians told us in chapter 3 that we are to be conformed to the sufferings of Jesus, didn’t it?  Was Jesus slandered?  Yes.  Was Jesus insulted?  Yes.  Was Jesus taken for granted?  Yes.  So then, if you have gotten your feathers ruffled, then rather than defend your rights, be conformed to the image of Jesus.  Suffer in silence with Jesus.  Love those who mistreat you.  Forgive those who mistreat you.  Pray for them.   And above all, get the chip off of your shoulder.  Be sure you’re not going around looking for trouble or you will find it.

At the end of verse three Paul says, “their names are written in the Book of Life.”  Listen, if your name is written in the Book of Life and my name is written in the Book of Life, if God has combined us, and put us together in that way, then we need to be more understanding of one another.  None of us is perfect yet.  3:12: “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.”  Christ Jesus laid hold of you to become part of his body, the local fellowship.  None of us are perfect yet.  But let’s press on together recognizing that God has saved each of us.  Perseverance requires getting along and not being distracted by petty grievances.

And then in verse 4 Paul says “Rejoice in the Lord.”  Some have said that rejoice or joy is the theme of this letter because Paul says it over and over again.  But discouragement is the opposite of joy.  Nothing will deter you from persevering like discouragement.  However, the secret to joy, the secret to rejoicing, is not our circumstances, but our Lord. This is another reason why we need to stay in the Word and in the fellowship of others in the Word.  So we don’t get discouraged in our circumstances, but focus on the greatness of our God.

I was very encouraged last night to get a phone call from Joe, who couldn’t wait to tell me how he came to know the Lord as His Savior.  And as I listened to his story, it reminded me of how great is our God, how wonderful is this God who pursued us, who never stopped loving us, who in spite of our sinfulness and willfulness continued to work in us until one day the Holy Spirit overwhelmed us in conviction and we responded in faith.  And when we responded in faith, God responded even more, and in Joe’s case he lost his job, his apartment, his girlfriend, and his ski pass all in the first week of his salvation.  And yet Joe wasn’t discouraged.  He was rejoicing because he knew that God loved him and had a plan for him and that all of this was part of God’s plan.  How wonderful that God loves us even when we are running away from Him and cursing Him and spurning that love.   And when we really see that then we have joy. When we are down and out, we need to get our eyes off our circumstances and back on Jesus and rejoice in all that He is.  Rejoice that in spite of how fallen we were that we were chosen to be like Him.

Vs. 5 says, “Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men.”  That word is epieikēs; and it means forbearing, or gentle or seemly, suitable, or equitable.   I think that is referring to those difficult circumstances that are going to come upon us all from time to time.  When things don’t seem to go right.  When life doesn’t seem fair.  When it seems we have been slighted or overlooked or taken advantage of.  Instead of being known as the guy that you better not mess with, or the woman that you better not cross, or the person that you better watch out for their temper,  instead you are known for being even tempered, for not letting things upset you, for not flying off the handle.  You have a settled quality about you.  You can rejoice in perseverance because your joy is not in your circumstances but in your Savior.

And the last phrase in vs. 5 is probably my favorite.  “The Lord is near.”  That can  have two meanings and either one of them may be applicable depending on the situation.  One is it’s referring to the day of the Lord being near. 2Pet. 3:10 speaks of the day of the Lord being near, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” Peter says we are to be living in such a way as those that are looking for that day to come and hastening for that day to come.  And this is in keeping with the context of what Paul is talking about in Philippians at the end of chapter 3.  This is the goal that we are to be pressing of towards; the upward call of Christ Jesus when He will come back to earth for us and judge the earth and it’s works.  We should rejoice in perseverance because the Lord could come back today.  There is nothing necessary to be done before He can come back.  He could come right now, and we should live in expectation of that day. That expectation should cause us to rejoice.

And then the other way of looking at that phrase is “the Lord is at hand”  And it can refer back to what I was talking about with Joe.  Joe left the beach and the teaching that we were giving him about truth and righteousness and ran away to Colorado.  And yet when he came to his senses and called upon God in Colorado, God was near, wasn’t he?  God was right at hand.  God is as close as a prayer, no matter where on earth you might go. Psalm 139:7 “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.”  Your hand will lay hold of me.  That was echoed in  chapter 3 of Philippians verse 12 wasn’t it?  God laid hold of us.  That should make you rejoice.  That no matter where you are, God is near, He’s right at hand.  You can persevere because the Lord is near, the Lord is at hand, ready to help you in time of need.  He’s always with you.  The Lord is as near as a prayer.

And then the last one, and I’ll only just mention it today.  Perseverance is found by trusting in the Lord.  Next Sunday I’m going to preach on verses 6-9 particularly in regards to dealing with anxiety.  Those of you that know my testimony, know that about 15 years ago I started suffering from extreme anxiety attacks which lasted for several years.  It was so bad and lasted so long that I ended up losing my career, my home, my health, my cars and all my possessions.  I almost ended up losing my sanity through it as well.  And through all those years there was one passage of scripture in particular that I held onto, sometimes feeling like I was at the edge of insanity, and it was this passage.  God’s word kept me sane.  So if you know of anyone that is dealing with anxiety, depression, or any other type of psychological disorder that you think might benefit from this message next week, I encourage you to invite them to church.

But let me tell you the short meaning of these verses here this morning.  Perseverance depends upon you coming to the point of complete trust in the Lord; complete dependence upon Jesus Christ for everything.  When I thought I was losing my mind at one point, I imagined tying an knot to the end of my rope so to speak.  I had heard someone say that when you reach the end of your rope, just tie a knot and hang on.  And I had been hanging on for about a year or so fighting for my sanity and finally one night I couldn’t hold on anymore, I felt I was losing my grip on reality.  I felt myself letting go and for a moment imagined myself flipping over backwards into this bottomless chasm of insanity.  I couldn’t hang on any more.  And folks, in that moment of blackness, in that moment of abject terror, I found that Jesus Christ had laid hold of me.  I wasn’t responsible for holding onto Jesus.  Jesus was responsible for holding onto me.  And He would never let me go.

Jesus said in John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.  I and the Father are one."

Perseverance requires having that confidence which comes from proving that Jesus is faithful.  No matter what the circumstances.  No matter how it doesn’t make sense.  Jesus is mine and I am His.  Knowing what Romans 8:28 really means:  “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  That doesn’t mean that God is going to work everything out according to my desires, according to my plans.  What that means is that when my plans become aligned with God’s plans, when my purpose is to glorify Him by my life, then God is going to use everything that happens in my life to work out for the purpose of glorifying God.  This is the perseverance of the saints.  Those that are called according to HIS purpose.  And when you get that perspective right, then God is going to work things out right and I’m going to be all right with it.

Folks, I pray that you will stand fast.  Having done everything to stand fast.  Don’t be taken in by the deceit of Satan.  Don’t allow yourself to become offended.  Don’t allow petty grievances to grieve the Holy Spirit. But rather rejoice in the Lord.  Trust in the Lord.  Don’t be anxious for anything, and let the peace of God rule your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  And having done all, stand fast in the Lord.

spiritual maturity

Phil. 3:15-21

Last Sunday after church my wife and I took our two oldest children to the airport to go back to college.  And it was a bittersweet time for us.  On the one hand, we hate being separated from them for so long, but at the same time, there was a recognition that it was time for them to go, and in fact, it was good for them to go.  Going away to college is a natural part of the transition into adulthood.  And as a parent, we all realize that the maturity of our children is a natural goal.  We want to see them mature and become responsible adults and live a productive life.  No parent wants their children to stay children forever.  Growing up is a normal part of physical, emotional and mental maturity that we all recognize is desirable for our children.

And just as it is normal to expect physical maturity, so it is also to be in our spiritual lives.  God as our heavenly Father expects us to grow into spiritual maturity. And this is what this passage we are looking at today in Philippians is talking about. It’s talking about spiritual maturity.  We are going to see the goal of maturity, the standard of maturity, the examples of maturity and finally the state of maturity.   First of all then the goal of maturity. Let’s remind ourselves of the context we are considering these verses in, and to do that we need to go back to verses 13 and 14.  Paul is talking about spiritual maturity, spiritual completion, and he says, “one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

In other words, Paul is saying that  we should be reaching forward, pressing on, striving for the goal of spiritual maturity.  But though we are saved, though we are practically being sanctified by our obedience to the Holy Spirit working in us, yet our perfection, our completion, our ultimate maturity will come about when we are called up, when this mortal shall put on immortality, and this body will be changed incorruptible.

So this means that our goal once we are saved is to become mature. 2 Corinthians 3:18 states this as our goal. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”  As we look in the mirror of God’s word, we are being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.  This is the goal of a Christian.  We are born again – we become an infant in this new life- and then we begin the process of spiritual growth, which is called sanctification.  And that simply means we become like Christ. Our lives become a reflection of Jesus Christ, just as our children become a reflection of us as parents, of our values, of their upbringing, even to the point of looking and talking like us.  Not long ago, I was sitting on a porch and caught a reflection of myself in the window, and I realized how much I looked like my mother.  I always thought I looked more like my dad.  But I realized I look like both of them.  I am a reflection of my parents.  And so it is supposed to be in our spiritual life. We should look like our spiritual parents.  This process of growing up, of being obedient to what God teaches me, should result in me looking and acting more and more like Jesus Christ, who is the very reflection of God.

Rom 8:29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”  Becoming conformed to the image of Christ should be the single most important purpose of our life.  Nothing else is as important.  God fixing all my stuff is not as important.  God attending to all my needs is not the purpose of my salvation.  God making it possible for me to have what I may think is a successful life here and now on this earth is not the purpose that Jesus died on the cross.  But He came so that I might be made righteous, so that fellowship with God was possible for us, and to do that He transfers the righteousness of Jesus to us, and transfers our sins onto the cross, and we become followers of Jesus, to become like Him, made once again into His image, as man was originally intended to be at creation.

So  first our purpose, our goal, to be like Christ.  And verse 14 says though we are pressing on in that goal, it will be completed when Jesus comes back.  Now look at vs. 15 and 16 and let’s see what is to be the standard of our maturity. “Let us therefore, as many as are perfect,(there is that word again which means complete, mature)  have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; 16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.”  The standard then is to continue striving for the perfection that is Christ.  Now obviously, Paul just got finished saying he hasn’t obtained complete maturity yet, but the implication here is that there should be an ongoing process of maturity that happens in the life of a believer.  And what he is saying here is that maturity should be your aspiration, yet at the same time there needs to be a recognition that we all that are saved are a work in progress that will not see final completion until Jesus comes back.  Yet that should not deter us from pressing on to maturity.  Far from it.  It should motivate us to become mature. That’s why Hebrews 6:1 says, “Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity.” Maturity is synonymous with becoming conformed to the image of Christ.  Jesus Christ is our standard of maturity.  We don’t measure ourselves by ourselves or even by our neighbor, but our standard is Christ.  His likeness is what we are striving for.

Yet at the same time, implicit in this standard should also be an understanding that none of us are at the same spiritual level of maturity.  It would be an extremely rare thing if I found any of you exactly the same age and with the same birthday as another person.  Spiritually, the same principle applies.  We all should be pressing on to maturity, we should all be aspiring to spiritual maturity, to be conformed to the image of Christ, but as Paul says, we haven’t all arrived yet, nor are we all at the same place.  So we need to be understanding of one another, and remain teachable.

For instance, as we become mature, according to vs. 15, we acknowledge that while we may have come to a certain understanding of certain doctrines or interpretations, that there are other people who also are saved, aspiring to godliness, aspiring to maturity, that may not have yet come to the same understanding of certain less essential doctrines.  And so for the sake of unity, for the sake of the fellowship we are to have with the body, we do not break fellowship over  non essential doctrines.  Rather, we make the plain things the main things.

However, that being said, as a local, independent body of believers, as the local church, and as the leader of such church, I have to come down on one side or another in terms of church organization on many of these issues.  I have to take a position.  I will teach my position as I come upon such issues in scripture.  However, I will not camp out on them.   I will not make peripheral doctrines the capstone or cornerstone of this ministry, to the extent that if you don’t ascribe exactly to every doctrine in just the same way that I do on every subject you can’t have fellowship with us.  But at the same time, for the sake of unity within the body, we must have an understanding that this church does have a position on those non essential issues and if necessary, we can agree to disagree for the sake of unity and for the sake of the progress of the gospel.  For instance, eschatology, the study of end time prophecy, has a lot of views that are held by many people that differ on things like  whether Christ will return before the tribulation, or sometime in the middle, or at the end.  And there are many well learned commentators that differ on these distinctions.  I have my own view as well that I have come to after years of studying.  However, the main issue is that Jesus is coming back for His church and to judge the world.  This is clearly presented in Scripture.  But we shouldn’t let the things that are less clear in regards to eschatology become a point of division in the fellowship.  However, as I come to such doctrines in scripture I will teach them, I will point out what I think I have learned in my studies, and I would urge you to be like the Bible said about the Bereans, who eagerly listened to the apostle’s teaching and then searched the scriptures to see if those things were so.   To remain teachable, yielding to what the Word says and not forming viewpoints just because it is the popular or politically correct view.

So in light of that, in light of the fact that as a pastor I am tasked with the leadership of the church, let’s look at the next verse, 17 for the examples of maturity. Paul gives both a positive example and a negative example.  First the positive.  “Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.”  Now this is a heavy responsibility that has to be applied to me.  It would be much easier if I were to just ascribe this to Paul and not apply it to myself as a leader of the church.  But I think that Paul is talking about leadership.  I think this is why James tells us that not many of us should become teachers, because we will be judged with a stricter judgment.  This is why 1 Timothy is such an essential book for us to study on Wednesday night.  It delineates the attributes  and qualifications of godly leadership as we were looking at last week.  And the reason that leadership is so important in the church is that it isn’t just about a hierarchy, it isn’t about an exalted position of authority, it isn’t even just about who is the teacher or preacher, but it is about being an example.  Living  a life that can be pointed to as an example.

Note also that vs. 17 says, “join in following my example”.  The idea expressed here is joining with others in fellowship.  Not out there on your own, following your own reasoning, following your own ideas of what you think godliness is all about.  But it is important to join in fellowship, following the examples of your leaders.

It should go without saying, that in order for you to follow your leaders, your leaders must be followers of Christ.  Paul said in 1Cor. 11:1 “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”  The great commission is that we are to go into all the world and make disciples.  I’ve said it before, it’s a lot easier to make converts than it is to make disciples.  Making disciples means that someone is going to follow you around.  And most of us are good at presenting a witness on our good days, on those times when we feel like it , or are prepared for it, but we’re not that good at being followed around and having someone watch us, day in and day out.  You’re either being an example or an excuse to the people watching you.  Either they see Jesus Christ living through you, or they see an excuse why they don’t need to take the claims of Christianity seriously.

What Paul is saying, is that we are to observe those who are supposed to be spiritual  according to the pattern that we see in Paul and the Apostles.  Their lives backed up what they were teaching.  They were the pattern for what a leader was supposed to look like and act like.  “Join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.”  So Paul and the Apostles are the role models for spiritual maturity.  You know, you can only learn so much through explanation.  There is a certain amount of learning that comes from application.  Take for instance someone training to be a nurse.  They take a lot of courses in a classroom, they memorize a lot of information, but then comes another level of learning which they call practicals.  And that is where they actually begin to do the work, hands on.  They follow other nurses, they work with other nurses in a real hospital situation with actual patients.  And this is the more advanced level of learning, where they follow others and learn from others by doing what they are doing.  Learning by example.  And this is of great importance in the church.

So that’s the positive example, now let’s look at the negative example in vs. 18 and 19: “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ,  19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.”  Some examples we see in the church are not godly examples, but people who claim Christianity, but live a life that is marked by worldliness.  And these negative examples are a real danger to the young believer especially.

Sometimes I have spoken in the past of people that have left our fellowship and turned back to the ways of the world.  And though that can be discouraging to me as a pastor, the greater concern is not whatever discouragement it may cause to me, but what it causes to the cross of Christ.  I grieve over many of these people that have fallen away.  Some were my close friends.  And like Paul, I have cried over their loss.  Because like Jacob they have traded the eternal glory for a pot of stew.  Jesus said in Matt. 6:24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”  Paul here makes a broader application than just wealth.  He calls it their appetites.  And Paul says they have become enemies of the cross of Christ.  Their lives have become stumbling blocks to others.  They have become an excuse to others who were looking to them as an example.

Paul says that their end is destruction.  You know, when the devil tempts you to sin, he doesn’t tempt you by telling you that this sin will lead to destruction, does he?  He says a little pleasure won’t hurt you.  A little taste won’t hurt you.  One glass isn’t such a big deal.  It’s just a little bit, it’s just a little thing.  I just heard of a guy yesterday that was a recovering heroin addict that was doing really well, and then he had a couple of beers.  And the couple of beers led to a little more, and then a little more, and now he has slipped back into using again.  Our appetites are the path to destruction and the devil knows just how to get us to go right back again and again.

But don’t say I’m not an addict, so therefore this doesn’t apply to me. These people that are enemies of Christ are described as people whose God isn’t Christ, but whose god is their appetite.  Their appetite is not for the things of God – for the maturity that comes from being conformed to the image and the death of Christ.  They are not living for God, but for themselves and to fulfill their needs, and to exalt themselves, to satisfy their worldly desires.

Oh, some of them go to church every Sunday.  Some of them claim to be godly people, to be Christians.  And yet their lives don’t bear the fruit of godliness.  Their lives are marked by worldliness.  Grace is not a license to sin.  God didn’t die on the cross so you could have your cake and eat it too.  So you could get a “get out of hell card” and still live it up here on earth.  Christ died so that you might become like Him.  So that you might follow in His pattern of which everything that He did glorified the Father.

“Whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame.” These people glory in things that they should be ashamed of.  You know, the culture of this world is filled full of things today that would have been considered shameful to even speak of 50 years ago.  We’re not more enlightened today.  Society is just more depraved.  I can’t even watch primetime television anymore.  I can’t watch commercials during some football games.  I can’t watch a lot of movies without fast forwarding about half of it.  Paul says, these so called Christians have their minds, their affections set on earthly things, and those things that they glory in they should be ashamed of.

You know, Peter said in 1 Peter 2:5 that we that are saved are being built up as a spiritual house unto God.   That we are to be holy, offering up acceptable sacrifices as priests to God.  And Paul talks about this house in 1 Cor. 3:10, he says as we are building up this house, we better be careful how we build on it.  For starters, we’re building on the foundation of Jesus Christ who by his blood made it possible for us to have this second life.  Secondly, he says, “Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day of judgment will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”

Listen, what Paul is saying is that if all your building is earthly stuff, it’s going to be burned up when the world is burned up with fire.  Wood, hay and straw is worthless, because it won’t survive.  It’s temporal. 2Pet. 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”

I would ask you to examine yourselves today.  Where is your treasure?  What type of house are you building unto God?  Are you offering up sacrifices that are acceptable to God? Are you offering up first and foremost as Romans 12:1 says, “I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Jesus said in Luke 12:34 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” I hope you are laying up your treasure in heaven.  And that leads us to our last point, the state of our maturity.  Back to our text in Phil. 3:20,21:  “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”

The state of our final maturity, the goal of our salvation, the purpose for which God sent Jesus into the world, is to bring us into that citizenship of heaven.  To capture us out of the kingdom of darkness and transfer us into the kingdom of heaven.  We should be like Abraham in Hebrews 11:9, “By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

Listen folks, if you’re really a citizen of heaven, then you’re going to act like it.  You’re going to be an alien here on earth.  You’re going to march to the beat of a different drum.  You are going to be a peculiar people.  You’re going to talk different.  You’re going to act different. Because you have been born into a new life, a new existence, a new kingdom, a new citizenship.  Old things have passed away, and all things have become new.  You’re going to be growing into a reflection of Jesus Christ.

And if that is the state of your existence now, then when Jesus comes He is going to change your physical state into final conformity with his image.  “Who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”

1Cor. 15:51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

this one thing

Phil. 3: 12-14

How many times in your life have you heard yourself saying something to the effect…”boy, if I could just have one thing in life, I would like….”  Or maybe it might be “boy, if I could just do one thing in life, I would…”  And this morning, I would ask you to finish the sentence in your own mind.  If you were granted just one wish, you  could name just one thing and it would come to pass,  what would it be?

Now chances are, you actually ended up with two things you wanted.  One was probably the first thing that came to mind, and the second was something that you thought might be the answer that I was looking for.  But I would suggest that the first answer might give more clues about what you feel is really important in life than perhaps the second answer.

I heard a man say once "Just do one thing right in your life and you'll be way ahead of most people."  Having a singular purpose can be a good thing.  My mother used to say I had a one track mind.  The problem was,  it was going in the wrong direction.  But according to the Apostle Paul, there was one thing that he was focused on above all others.  And he tells us this as an example to all those that have been born again, that there is one thing that should be our driving ambition in life.

Last week, we looked at the preceding verses 8-11, and we looked at one thing I know, this week we’re looking at one thing I do.  The one thing I know is the driving impetus for the one thing I do.   And the one thing I know refers to knowing Jesus Christ in an intimate, personal way.  Not just knowing the facts about Him, but having received Him as our Savior, we know Him personally, and that knowledge becomes the catalyst for the rest of my life.

One thing I know refers to the surpassing value of that relationship with Christ.  Compared to all that the world has to offer, nothing compares with knowing Jesus Christ as my Savior.  He is the source of real life, He is the light in the darkness, He is the truth and the only way to the Father.  And we can know the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Creator of the universe personally.  He knows our names.  He knows our thoughts.  He knows us to the point of numbering the hairs on our head.  And in spite of all our shortcomings, He loves us to the point of dying for us.

And in verse 9, one thing I know means that I am found in Him as righteous, not by my works, but by the grace of God which was lavished upon me through faith in Christ.  I hope that is clear to each of you folks here today.  No matter what you have done, no matter how far you have fallen, absolute righteousness can be yours simply through faith in what Christ did for us on the cross.  You don’t have to work for it, you don’t have to clean yourself up first.  You simply come in faith to Jesus as your Savior and ask Him for forgiveness, trusting that He is able to provide it, because He paid the penalty for your sins, and as a result of that faith the Bible promises that God will credit you with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  He transfers your sins to Jesus, and Jesus righteousness to you.  I hope that you all have made that transaction by faith.

Then in verse 10, one thing I know means that once you have made that transaction by faith, the exchange of my sins for His righteousness, then we will know the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.  That means that I know that once I was blind but now I see.  Once I was dead in my sins and now I am made alive in Christ.  That’s what it means to know the power of the resurrection.  It’s the power of a new life.   The resurrection symbolizes a new life in Christ, and the fellowship of His sufferings symbolizes taking up our cross and following Christ – dying to the flesh even as Christ suffered and died in the flesh for sin.

And then in vs. 11, one thing I know is the promise of the resurrection from the dead.  The real hope of Christianity is not necessarily a better life now.  That may or may not happen as a result of becoming a Christian,  but the real hope is the promise of life beyond the grave.  No matter how great of a life you might think you can have right here, the truth is by the time you get it together, it’s already coming to an end.  Life is short.  But it was never meant to be this way.  Life the way God created it was eternal.  In the beginning there was no death. God created life.  Sin brought forth death. Rom. 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”  But because God never stopped loving us, He came to earth in the form of a man, Jesus, and died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, that we that believe in Him would be saved from death unto life. 

Now this outward body of mine continues to die. But Rom. 8:10 says that “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.”  One day, unless Christ comes back first, they are going to bury this body in the grave.  And I believe that Jesus taught us in the story of Lazarus and the rich man that our spirits will be alive and at rest in Paradise. 

But 1 Thessalonians gives us the promise of the resurrection of the dead. 1Thess. 4:13 “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.  For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” The resurrection is the goal line.

So that’s what Paul is talking about when he says, this one thing I know.  He knows Christ - all that Christ represents,  the promises of righteousness and resurrection that are true because of Christ.  And then Paul says, knowing this, this one thing I do.  The knowledge of Christ is so critical, so important, so life changing, that I am willing to focus all my energy, all my passion, all my resources on just one thing.  Now what is it that Paul says is the one thing we are to do, now that we know Christ?

Look at vs. 12, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” 

What are we to do?  What was Paul doing now that He had this saving knowledge of Christ, this intimate personal, relationship with Jesus, the Son of God?  The answer is that he pressed on.  He says “I press on” twice, in verses 12 and 14.  And though he doesn’t use those exact words, he describes the idea a third time in verse 13 by saying he is  “reaching forward”.  It’s the same idea as pressing on.

Paul is using the image here of a runner that is running a race as a metaphor for the Christian life.  One thing I do, he says, is I’m going to press on in this race.  I’m going to focus all my strength and all my energy on this one thing, running this race.  The one thing that I know from the previous verses is that this salvation that I am called to is of a surpassing value.  Nothing else in the world compares to it.  Nothing in this world can compare to the glories that God has prepared for us in the next world.  Paul had seen such things, by the way.  In 2 Corinthians 12 he talks about being caught up into the third heaven and seeing things he wasn’t allowed to talk about.  But he did say in 1 Corinthians 2:9 that eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and the heart of man cannot even comprehend the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.  And so Paul knows that there is a prize in this race which is greater than anything this world could possibly offer.  It’s worth all of my focus. It’s worth every sacrifice.  And so that one thing I know becomes my impetus, my zeal, my passion for this one thing I do – pressing on in this race I am running.

Now there are certain elements to this pressing on that bear our consideration.  The first one is found in the phrase in vs. 12, “Not that I have already obtained it…”  what is it referring to?  Well, back up a verse.  It’s obviously referring to the resurrection of the dead.  Now that’s such an obvious answer that at first you  might think that it couldn’t be right.  He must be talking about something else, because obviously if he is alive to write this letter he couldn’t be dead enough to be resurrected.  But what he is alluding to here is explained by the rest of the statement, “or have already become perfect.” 

And that word perfect causes a lot of people even more problems.  Because they think of perfection as somehow we are supposed to  become perfect people, without sin, without problems, everything about us is perfect.  But that isn’t the correct understanding of the word.  The word in the Greek is teleioō (te-lā-o'-ō) which means to complete, to accomplish, finish, to bring to an end.  So what we can understand from that then is that Paul is saying there is still an element to his knowing Christ, to his salvation, that is yet to be accomplished, that hasn’t been completed yet.  And that completion will be accomplished at the resurrection.

That completion which comes through the resurrection is talked about in Romans 8:22.  “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.  And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”

Listen folks, I love this life as much as any of you do.  But I also know that the whole creation, this whole world is under the curse of sin.  Death is a part of this world.  We try to hide from it.  We may try to mask it.  We may even try to glamorize it.  But the sad truth is that this world is broken.  People get sick and die.  Things break and grow old.  What joy we have is short lived.  By the time we finally acquire enough money and the right toys and enough wisdom to actually really enjoy life the whole ride is over.  And death swallows up all our accomplishments.

But knowing Christ gives us hope.  We have the promise of eternal life.  We have the promise that one day God will set all things aright.  God will punish evil and reward good.  God will bring about justice.  And God will do away with death forever. 1Cor. 15:26            “The last enemy that will be abolished is death.”

Skip down a few verses after that to 1Cor. 15:51 and it says, “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.

"O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?"   That is the completion, that is the perfection that Paul is talking about, when we receive our glorified body, when we our sin nature is taken away, and we become like Jesus, when we see Him face to face, and when we are seated on thrones with Christ.

This is what we were laid hold of for by Christ Jesus in verse 12.  This is why Jesus came to earth, to give us eternal life, that we might have real, abundant life, everlasting life, a life free from sin and the death that comes from sin.  This is why Jesus laid hold of me and I trust He has laid hold of you.  I love that expression, don’t you?  Laid hold of.  It sounds like the kind of  back woods, southern redneck expression I grew up around.  “Be still boy, or I’m a gonna lay hold of you!”  Sounds like something my dad would have said.  But what I really like about it is Paul says in verse 13 that  “I haven’t laid hold of it yet”, but Christ has laid hold of me.  And that is the sum of my assurance of salvation right there. 

Like the illustration I’ve used so many times.  (repetition is the key to learning)  When my children were little I said to them “Hold my hand when we cross the road.”  And I wanted them to learn to listen and obey and to trust me.  But their assurance of safety wasn’t dependent upon them holding onto my hand.  Their assurance of safety was in the fact that I was holding onto them.  I had them in my hand.  I laid hold of them.  And Christ has laid  hold of me and He isn’t letting me go.  John 10:28 Jesus said, “Nothing can snatch them out of my hand.”  I like that.

Now there is another element of the one thing I do.  And Paul says it’s forgetting what lies behind.  And this is so important folks.   Listen, God has saved you from your past.  God has delivered you from your past.  You need to get over your past and get on with the future. Churches are full of people who are holding all kinds of grudges, bitterness, baggage and junk from the past and they're paralyzed by it. The recollection of what you were in your former unconverted state shouldn't paralyze you and it shouldn't discourage you. Disappointments and temptations of the past must not depress you. If you’ve fallen or stumbled, you need to get up and brush yourself off and get on with the race. Paul says you shouldn’t be looking backward, but looking forward and pressing onward.

Some of us are guilty of looking backwards at the past like Lot’s wife.  She looked back with longing at the exceedingly sinful city of Sodom and Gomorrah.  And God turned her into a pillar of salt.  Some of you are looking backwards like the Israelites looked back at Egypt after God delivered them from slavery.  You may have once been a slave of alcohol, you may once have been a slave of drugs, you may once have been a slave of sex or any number of other things that you once were enslaved to.  And you have been looking backwards at some of those things and thinking, “You know, I had a lot of fun back then.  I kind of miss some of my old friends.  I miss some of the old ways.”  The Israelites said, “we miss the leeks and garlic and vegetables that we had in Egypt.”  What fools!  They were willing to swap their future and their freedom for a pot of food.

I pray that none of you are so foolish today that you find yourself looking backwards at what you are supposed to be running away from.  We are in a race folks.  We are running for an inestimable prize.  Don’t be distracted by the baubles, by the pretty lights and dazzling colors of the world.  Keep your eyes fixed on the goal.

1Cor 9:24 “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”

I like that phrase in vs. 13 back in our text again, where Paul says forgetting those things behind, I’m now reaching forward to what lies ahead.  This word for reaching forward is “ep-ek-tā'-no-mī”.  It means to stretch out towards, or to stretch oneself forward.  Have you ever seen that happen in a race?  I did once.  In high school we had this guy on our team named Dicky Stratton.  He was a pretty normal looking kid.  But he was a good athlete.  But the secret to Dicky’s strength wasn’t in his height or his fitness or even his ability, but in his heart.  He had the ability to be able to call upon some inner reserve and do extraordinary things.  I remember one time we had a track meet.  And there was this relay race of like four guys where they handed off the baton to the other guy.  And I remember that they put Dicky as the last guy to get the baton. And in the beginning, our team wasn’t doing all that well.  I think we were in third place as the race got underway.  Finally, they got to the last leg and our guy handed off the baton to Dicky.  And we all started cheering him on from the stands, chanting “Stratton! Stratton! Stratton!”  And about halfway into that last lap, suddenly something changed in Dicky.  He seemed to stretch out.  His stride lengthened, and his whole body changed as he put everything he had into that last leg.  It was like he changed into high gear and just moved out.  And one by one he passed up the other competitors and Dicky came first across the finish line.  He was totally spent.  We were going wild in the stands and Dicky could bearly stand up. 

Dicky ran with his heart.  He ran beyond his ability by reaching deep down inside himself and finding some sort of reserve.  Listen folks.  If you know the one thing, that is you know Christ Jesus as your personal Savior, then God promises you that He will provide the power within you to do the one thing He requires of us;  to run the race, to press on.  He will give you that inner resource to stretch forward beyond your normal capability so that you might reach the goal of the upward call of Christ Jesus.  Listen to   Hebrews 12:1  “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

So the one thing I do is to press on to the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  I’m going to discard every hindrance, every sin, every weight, every distraction and run with patience the race that is set before me. The race by the way is a marathon, not a sprint.  It takes patience, endurance, steadfastness.  Secondly, the race takes a continued focus. There are a lot of people who are like the guy who jumped on his horse and rode off madly in all directions, expending a lot of energy and a lot of fury and a lot of action,  but no real  progress.  They are like some people that I have known and still know in ministry that haven’t grown in the Lord hardly at all in the ten years or so I have known them.  They say they know the one thing that I know, but they haven’t done the one thing that we are called to do.  They haven’t pursued the upward call of Christ.  They are way too concerned with the  cheap pleasures and tawdry promises of this world than they are with the surpassing value of the future that God has prepared for those that love Him. 

So I will leave you this morning with a couple of questions.  Have you been laid hold of yet by Christ?  This is first and foremost the most important question of your life.  Do you know Him with a personal, intimate knowledge?  Can you say with Paul, this one thing I know, I know the power of a new life in Christ.   I know that I have a righteousness which comes from God on the basis of what Christ has done for me. 

And secondly,  if you know Him, then what are you doing?  What are you doing with your life?  This one thing I do.  What are you known for doing?  If you were to die today, what would they say at your funeral was the one thing that characterized your life?  What is the one thing that you do above all others?  I pray that the one thing I do is to run the race that is set before me, not looking behind, or being distracted, but stretching forward, reaching out for the prize and that I will be found being faithful when Jesus comes back and the trumpet sounds and calls me home.  And I pray that I may find that you will be running right along side of me.  Racing for the finish line.  To finish well, to finish strong.  This one thing I do.  This one thing we do.  Let’s run this race together, encouraging one another, helping one another, but most of all, fixing our eyes on the prize of the upward call of Christ.  It could be any day now.  I want to be found running with all my might when that day comes.  Let’s pray.