back to index2019-09-11 Wed Bible Study Lesson 4
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If I could get your attention up here, we'll take a moment to pray for God to bless our 00:00:11.480 |
time in the Word, and then we'll take about 30 minutes to go over the passage. 00:00:26.400 |
And what's more, God, we believe your Word is powerful. 00:00:30.200 |
And I know that all of us have experienced just the sweetness of seeing your truth, having 00:00:37.160 |
our eyes be opened, and having your Word shed light onto our path. 00:00:42.080 |
God, we are regularly absolutely challenged by your Word. 00:00:46.640 |
And Lord, it is our desire that it would cause us, Lord, to live this life in wisdom, and 00:00:52.840 |
Father God, to live this life in adherence to your truth. 00:00:57.200 |
Lord, truthfully, that is where it is most difficult. 00:01:01.440 |
A lot of these things, God, we've probably heard in other passages and other sermons. 00:01:05.360 |
But Lord, we do really eagerly pray that your Spirit would cause, every time your Word is 00:01:10.960 |
open to us, your Spirit would cause conviction. 00:01:16.800 |
And what's more, God, to effectively evaluate and desire to change so that, God, we would 00:01:22.600 |
be all the more in conformity to your Son, Jesus Christ. 00:01:26.240 |
We thank you and pray for your blessing upon our time of study tonight. 00:01:34.240 |
So as we normally do, let's take a moment to read through the passage together. 00:01:42.040 |
And Apostle Paul says, in Philippians here, verse 21, "For to me, to live is Christ and 00:01:51.320 |
But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me. 00:01:57.960 |
And I do not know which one to choose, but I am hard-pressed from both directions, having 00:02:02.760 |
the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better. 00:02:07.880 |
Yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. 00:02:12.800 |
Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress 00:02:18.800 |
and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my 00:02:26.280 |
Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I 00:02:31.080 |
come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in 00:02:35.720 |
one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, in no way alarmed 00:02:42.720 |
by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that 00:02:50.080 |
For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also 00:02:54.720 |
to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear 00:03:04.500 |
As you read this passage, this is an epic one. 00:03:08.840 |
Epic because when you read a verse like, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain," 00:03:19.920 |
It is one of those all-life-encompassing, even death-encompassing, right? 00:03:26.240 |
Almost like majestic statement that summarizes so much. 00:03:31.200 |
And so we've got to ask, how does Apostle Paul come to this statement? 00:03:39.000 |
Meaning how does he lead up to say something like that? 00:03:42.720 |
And so one of the things that we typically do in Bible study is to ask, how does this 00:03:47.440 |
thought even connect with what he said before, right? 00:03:51.680 |
What was in his mind, what was he saying previously that he would say something like this? 00:03:57.120 |
So we take a moment to go back in our Bibles to a previous passage, and I'm just going 00:04:07.800 |
Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. 00:04:19.080 |
For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision 00:04:24.120 |
of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will 00:04:29.440 |
not be put to shame in anything, but that in all boldness, Christ will even now, as 00:04:35.040 |
always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death." 00:04:40.440 |
And then he says, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." 00:04:46.440 |
I want to make mention of the fact that clearly his thought from this verse 18 where he says, 00:04:54.780 |
This is my desire, it's what I'm looking for." 00:04:58.160 |
That thought is carried through all the way to verse 20 where he says, "Whether by life 00:05:02.000 |
or by death, my expectation and my hope is that Christ would be exalted." 00:05:09.440 |
That thought is carried in verse 21, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." 00:05:14.280 |
These section headings are not inspired and what you can tell is that actually the paragraph 00:05:25.160 |
So going back to our verse then, oh no, oh it's that one. 00:05:30.280 |
Going back to our verse then, we can summarize previously Apostle Paul is saying that he 00:05:34.760 |
is so committed, his number one passion, the desire, you can say the treasure, the goal 00:05:43.080 |
that he has set in his heart is to see Christ proclaimed and his Savior exalted in his life. 00:05:50.100 |
And no matter what happens to him, that's what's going to be the measure by which he 00:06:00.640 |
No matter what the circumstances are, he has found a way to make sense of his imprisonment, 00:06:06.880 |
of the beatings he received, of his privileges taken away. 00:06:12.080 |
There is a way for him to make sense of it all and that making sense of it all is his 00:06:21.560 |
So what's interesting here is right now all I'm doing is making much of this idea that 00:06:27.400 |
he says, "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain," and all I'm saying to you 00:06:34.720 |
And my question now then is, what's the connection? 00:06:38.320 |
Is he just reiterating the same thing or is he saying more? 00:06:43.200 |
And what I like to think is, well, he's actually giving us a because statement. 00:06:51.080 |
And the reason why I say it is saying, "Okay, I have as my number one desire the exaltation 00:06:55.880 |
of Christ," and then he says, "For to me," and when he says that, all he's saying is, 00:07:00.840 |
"Because for me to live is Christ and to die is gain." 00:07:07.360 |
This number one eager desire, this passion and hope, this is what is causing him now 00:07:17.200 |
to not only evaluate this time of suffering or the time in prison, what he's doing is 00:07:30.840 |
As I look at verse 22 and 23, is he not doing a evaluation, a pro and con, a kind of measure 00:07:47.580 |
In option one, I can live on in the flesh," meaning I could stay here, "and what this 00:07:57.680 |
He says, "In this life, I can continue to bear fruit and keep on working the cause of 00:08:09.000 |
Because he's got this also desire to depart, to be with Christ. 00:08:17.220 |
And he says, "This, however," and look at this, "is much better." 00:08:24.320 |
If you're highlighting, I'm going to highlight two here, okay? 00:08:31.520 |
Because when I see this, what I see is a flow of thought where in this first section, verses 00:08:38.440 |
1 through 26, he gives this pretty incredible statement. 00:08:42.800 |
"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain," and then he involves us or at least 00:08:48.560 |
exposes and reveals his kind of perspective, his thinking through what's good. 00:08:57.160 |
And so, if you look at your handout, I've labeled this point number one, what's good, 00:09:04.680 |
The perspective, the worldview, to be able to say, "Life and death, I've got a means 00:09:15.840 |
And what he says is, "Because for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain," and he 00:09:21.240 |
explains it by saying, "As I think about my life, I've got two options and they both have 00:09:28.760 |
I'm going to be serving him or I could leave." 00:09:31.600 |
And you know what's really interesting about this? 00:09:34.740 |
He says, "As I think and as I reflect, my conclusion is this is much, much better." 00:09:48.060 |
What I am saying to you is he's not only reiterating his desire and saying, "I want to see Christ 00:09:54.860 |
exalted and I want to continue to suffer and to go to this and this and that." 00:10:01.460 |
What he's saying is, "I am telling you my worldview, in my perspective, to have Christ 00:10:10.700 |
Now I'd like to give you an example of this by using a really, really worldly example. 00:10:17.220 |
And the example I'd like to give is my love for minivans. 00:10:21.140 |
Many of you guys who have talked to me, thank you, thumbs up to you, brother. 00:10:26.260 |
Many of you guys who have talked to me before, you know that ever since I was in college, 00:10:29.940 |
so this is when I was between the ages of like 18 and 19, I wanted a minivan and I told 00:10:37.100 |
I told every individual that I want a minivan and everybody was like, "Why?" 00:10:40.300 |
And I'd give them this argument because the minivan is truly the most utility vehicle, 00:10:48.540 |
I mean, what other vehicle can you put like a queen-size mattress, all your books and 00:10:52.300 |
your chair and have be fine in your mood, right? 00:10:56.260 |
What other vehicle can you just open all the doors and have people come in and come out 00:10:59.700 |
and it's truly the most like versatile vehicle you can purchase. 00:11:05.660 |
And for me as a family guy, I got my two kids, you can put grandpa, grandma in the back and 00:11:12.140 |
Now the other reason why I really like the minivans because there was this moment when 00:11:16.820 |
I first became Christian as a senior in high school, it was strange but my pastor allowed 00:11:21.460 |
me to drive the church minivan and it was a Toyota Sienna. 00:11:26.740 |
We packed in all the youth group students and we went to Arizona for a mission trip. 00:11:30.720 |
It was the American, Navajo Indian Reservation and we took like a 26-hour drive. 00:11:39.740 |
Now while I was driving, all the students in the car, they get knocked out, they're 00:11:45.280 |
People were like they have food crumbs all over the place. 00:11:47.860 |
And as I was driving though, I wasn't thinking like this is the best utility vehicle. 00:11:55.340 |
We've got our brothers and sisters in the car. 00:12:01.100 |
And then I started thinking, "The Sienna is the most godly vehicle." 00:12:10.580 |
There's no flaunting this like monstrous thing. 00:12:14.020 |
But it's like the godliest thing possible because we have everybody inside and then 00:12:18.300 |
I was thinking like, you know, with the push of a button, I could open the door and like 00:12:23.900 |
Now I'm just giving you a funny example but think about this, right? 00:12:28.460 |
Why would an 18 or 19-year-old student want a minivan and look like a soccer mom? 00:12:35.500 |
See because I had a moment where I had a picture and I thought this is so good, ever since 00:12:48.420 |
The only reason why we want certain things is because you had a picture in your head 00:12:57.180 |
And when you conclude that, that is where your desires rise. 00:13:00.960 |
And to the degree that you think that really is good, it's going to match your intensity 00:13:09.980 |
So for Apostle Paul, when he recognizes, "For to me, Christ is better," I want you to 00:13:16.100 |
understand he's not saying that it's just, you know, it's just better than getting 00:13:22.180 |
He's actually saying it's better than life altogether. 00:13:27.100 |
There is an absolute method to his madness, meaning there's a rationale and reason as 00:13:34.900 |
Why would you want to walk this path that causes you to go to jail? 00:13:39.020 |
Why would you want to walk this path that causes you grief and hardship? 00:13:45.940 |
And yes, this is better than living a long life and growing old together with the love 00:13:52.740 |
To him, this is better than living a long life and being able to see your grandkids, 00:13:57.820 |
to live a long, full life where you can leave a legacy and see how, you know, the things 00:14:03.620 |
that you have actually built up and the fortune that you've amassed, you can pass it down 00:14:08.380 |
and you have this great joy in your heart that you can leave it for the next generations. 00:14:14.500 |
What did he have to his name that he could leave for his children? 00:14:18.020 |
But in my mind, I feel like that's what most people in this generation, that's what they're 00:14:23.340 |
Just save, save, save, save, save, and you glory in your retirement days. 00:14:26.700 |
What you want is to have the privilege to then also leave a legacy for your kids. 00:14:35.660 |
Can you by conviction conclude with Apostle Paul, no. 00:14:41.780 |
All of life here combined is not even comparable to me being with Christ. 00:14:50.500 |
His conclusion, and look at this, his conviction, what is he convinced about? 00:15:00.260 |
What is he so convinced about is his worldview and perspective. 00:15:05.740 |
And he is able to discern and judge and conclude this is much better than he's able to commit. 00:15:14.060 |
Then he's able to commit to them, he's able to commit to work, he's able to commit to 00:15:22.480 |
This to him is his motivation for the rest of his ministry, for his confidence that he's 00:15:33.340 |
And so when we look at this and we see this weird contrast, we have to recognize Apostle 00:15:42.180 |
But let's take a moment to think about this just even a little bit deeper because there 00:15:48.500 |
So here, when you take a look at option one versus option two, we think, okay, Apostle 00:15:54.860 |
Paul's still dedicated to this cause of seeing Jesus exalted. 00:15:59.400 |
He wants to either live so he can be fruitful in labor or he wants to go. 00:16:05.640 |
But the reason why I want to take a moment and cause us to think about it is because, 00:16:15.620 |
Because if I put myself in Apostle Paul's shoes and I imagine that I hit a wall and 00:16:20.900 |
people were persecuting me, there are people willing to pick up stones and stone me or 00:16:28.880 |
My struggle would more so be should I keep working or should I quit, right? 00:16:34.500 |
Like my struggle would be should I just close my mouth or should I just keep talking, right? 00:16:40.040 |
But the strangeness of it all is Apostle Paul was literally in a situation where he is in 00:16:48.220 |
Because even being in prison, it's not like our prison, before being put in prison, he 00:16:56.100 |
What Apostle Paul's wrestling was with, you know, I could actually just keep going, maybe 00:17:01.300 |
even more bombastically preach to the guards, preach to the, you know, the higher officials. 00:17:08.800 |
And what he knows is not so much that like, you know what, I'm just going to kill myself. 00:17:14.060 |
He's thinking about pressing the envelope even more, right? 00:17:19.860 |
Because what he knows is that when he is dedicated to ministry and in this current circumstance, 00:17:25.300 |
if he goes more, he could literally face death. 00:17:31.420 |
To think you literally have these choices and you're willing, like you have that realistic 00:17:39.620 |
possibility and it's not off the table, right? 00:17:47.300 |
Because truthfully speaking, certain things, it's not even on the table for me, right? 00:17:52.500 |
If it means suffering, discomfort, if it means foregoing certain opportunities, foregoing 00:17:58.940 |
certain privileges, sometimes it's not even option one or option two. 00:18:04.020 |
It's immediately, well, I guess I only have option one, right? 00:18:10.160 |
This is what I'm saying is as we take a moment to observe Apostle Paul even wrestling with 00:18:14.100 |
this, before if you just do a cursory glance over this, you're just like, "Huh, that's 00:18:19.900 |
You know, maybe he knows he's near his deathbed. 00:18:29.100 |
So, for the sake of time, I know there's probably a lot of questions here. 00:18:32.620 |
Like, what does he mean by your proud confidence? 00:18:40.500 |
And why would they have this kind of confidence in Apostle Paul? 00:18:43.900 |
Hope you guys can keep talking about that stuff and dig into that, okay? 00:18:47.940 |
But for the sake of time, we're going to move over to point two and take a look at the command. 00:18:59.460 |
So right here, in my eyes, there were two clear sections of our passage. 00:19:04.500 |
The first connected to the previous passage where he says, basically, "In my life or whether 00:19:10.540 |
by death, Christ needs to be exalted because for me, Christ is my gain. 00:19:22.380 |
So now, after explaining all that, Apostle Paul gives this powerful command. 00:19:28.300 |
He says, "Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." 00:19:34.100 |
Now, whenever I see this, this idea of, I hope this shows up here, manner worthy of 00:19:48.040 |
This idea here of manner worthy of the gospel, that is like such a high, huge, incredible 00:20:00.100 |
And I want to ask you, like, when you hear that, do you just glance over? 00:20:03.620 |
Do you stop and you're just kind of like, "Whoa." 00:20:12.100 |
Like, you mean, here is the Lord who was in the beginning, who was the sustainer, who 00:20:21.020 |
like everything came into being through him and he humbled himself and died and you want 00:20:30.100 |
Well, what's really interesting about this is you will see that in other passages, you 00:20:35.900 |
will see that a lot of times the concept here is not so much that, "Oh my gosh, you're 00:20:45.500 |
You deserve, that's not what it's saying, right? 00:20:47.500 |
What he's talking about is in accordance or appropriateness. 00:20:50.420 |
So I'm just going to, rather than take too much time to it, in accordance and appropriateness, 00:20:58.860 |
For example, another passage that's really common is Ephesians chapter four, verse one. 00:21:05.140 |
He says, "So I urge you, brethren, walk in a manner worthy of the gospel," and what he 00:21:10.940 |
talks about is, "I just told you about grace and love." 00:21:19.020 |
You need to be the most humble people ever because the truth of the matter is you don't 00:21:24.540 |
So what we're talking about is a kind of, you know, correspondence to the truth of the 00:21:36.940 |
So why in the world are you walking around pomp and prideful and conceited, right? 00:21:42.020 |
That's typically the kind of exhortation that you see in other books of the Bible where 00:21:45.940 |
it talks about you need to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. 00:21:51.620 |
So as we think about this, though, we recognize that, man, this is pretty emphatic here because 00:22:01.100 |
what's really interesting is in chapter one, Apostle Paul used the word "only" to introduce 00:22:12.780 |
There are a bunch of these bad guys out there preaching out of conceit, and they're like, 00:22:17.380 |
you know, pretty much selfish, and they're trying to take this opportunity to even hurt 00:22:22.820 |
Should I be like, 'Oh, goodness me,' you know? 00:22:26.220 |
So he says, "Only this, that Christ is proclaimed." 00:22:30.020 |
Synonymously, I want you guys to understand, when he says to walk in a manner worthy of 00:22:37.820 |
the gospel, I'm asking you to think about these other synonyms. 00:22:42.820 |
Are you living in a manner where it is synonymous to only that Christ is proclaimed? 00:22:50.940 |
You're living in a manner that's pointing to the gospel. 00:22:54.340 |
You're living in a manner upholding the gospel. 00:22:57.340 |
You're living in a manner thankful for the gospel. 00:22:59.980 |
You're living in a manner that is, again, appropriate to what the Lord has done for 00:23:05.660 |
One of the things that's so convicting was this past weekend we were at a retreat, and 00:23:11.700 |
I talked about like, you know, if your identity is in Christ, you would be a thankful person. 00:23:18.460 |
And yet I was so convicted because, do you know how often complaints come out of my mouth? 00:23:29.100 |
And I just feel like we live in a generation where it's almost fun to rant, right? 00:23:37.620 |
And the more like, you know, sharp and more brazen you can get at criticizing something, 00:23:43.460 |
you get more likes or something like that, right? 00:23:46.420 |
And then you realize like, "Oh my goodness, that is not worthy of the gospel. 00:23:51.580 |
It is not even appropriate for an individual to have received such grace, and yet their 00:24:02.940 |
Now, as we think about this then, here is an interesting connection here, okay? 00:24:12.780 |
And so again, whenever you guys do observations, I broke it down into these outlines for you 00:24:18.020 |
guys, but the way I do these outlines is always simply by observing these transitions of thought. 00:24:24.980 |
So earlier, if I saw a "for," then I was like, "Okay, this is a new paragraph." 00:24:29.780 |
Or if I saw "but," then I realized, "Okay, he's contrasting two thoughts." 00:24:34.340 |
And then over here, when he says, "So that," I got to ask myself the question, "Is this 00:24:41.180 |
Is this just simply an effect that he wants to see? 00:24:46.500 |
And this is really interesting, and he says, "I want you to walk in this manner appropriate 00:24:50.700 |
to the gospel, worthy of the gospel, so that I can see and I can hear this. 00:24:55.820 |
Whether I actually come out or whether I don't come out, I want to see and hear this in you." 00:25:04.700 |
And whenever you're doing your study and you see a laundry list of stuff, then you want 00:25:07.880 |
to make sure you highlight that and you count it. 00:25:10.460 |
First, he says, "I want to make sure that you're standing firm in one spirit, with one 00:25:23.140 |
And as we see that, the things that Apostle Paul wants to see, is there any pattern? 00:25:34.380 |
Yes, you're supposed to be strong, you're supposed to stand against these opponents, 00:25:37.420 |
and you're supposed to hold your ground, but you're supposed to do that in one spirit, 00:25:48.380 |
One mind, and what you're supposed to be doing with one mind is striving together, that you're 00:25:55.580 |
You're trying and you're putting forth that effort, pursuing what? 00:26:03.960 |
But I want you guys to think about that for a moment. 00:26:06.880 |
What Apostle Paul desires to see is an incredible unity. 00:26:12.080 |
Apostle Paul desires to see an incredible oneness in the church. 00:26:15.640 |
And if you guys know what's coming up, he's going to extrapolate that out to a greater 00:26:21.000 |
And he's going to say, "This is so important for all of you, that you actually have this 00:26:25.960 |
unity, not based upon, 'You know what guys, we need to sit down together and just spend 00:26:30.800 |
some quality time, and we're going to do this week by week, because the more you stay together, 00:26:40.760 |
Because clearly Apostle Paul doesn't have quantity of time with these people. 00:26:45.520 |
It's not talking about kind of like the solidarity that comes from, "You know, we all happen 00:26:51.440 |
We all happen to be X people," whatever it may be. 00:26:54.320 |
"We all happen to be people with the same experiences. 00:26:56.880 |
We all happen to be people with the same kind of educational," you know, whatever, demographics 00:27:02.960 |
There has to be a oneness in spirit and a oneness of striving together for the faith 00:27:10.240 |
What's really interesting, he says, "I want to make sure," and I'm going to highlight 00:27:14.520 |
this in red, "that you not be alarmed," because it's kind of a negative way of saying a very 00:27:27.920 |
So I want you guys to kind of imagine this, right? 00:27:32.080 |
The whole scenario is Apostle Paul is experiencing persecution. 00:27:36.240 |
And remember his intent was, "I want to basically encourage you but also prepare you by explaining 00:27:42.720 |
to you how I'm doing and how I'm making sense of this whole scenario, which perhaps you 00:27:51.800 |
Because Apostle Paul wants to make sure that the church is ready. 00:27:55.600 |
You guys are going to experience the same stuff. 00:27:57.760 |
And we need to continue, just like I already am, to strive for the cause of the advancement 00:28:05.480 |
The only reason why we are here and not up there is because we need to continue to do 00:28:14.080 |
So with that in mind, think about this, right? 00:28:16.780 |
If you were like in the military, or actually, let me use another example. 00:28:24.700 |
Think about two different basketball players. 00:28:28.540 |
Am I getting mixed up in the -- oh, man, I am getting mixed up. 00:28:52.900 |
As an example, think about a military scenario, and imagine you are the captain. 00:28:57.220 |
And you know you have got to lead this platoon. 00:28:59.540 |
You have got to march these guys over the hill. 00:29:01.740 |
And you have got to basically overtake a fortified little machine gun or whatever it may be. 00:29:13.060 |
I want you guys to understand what is happening. 00:29:15.140 |
I know we have already been marching for days, and we are tired, but remember, we need to 00:29:22.620 |
Now you would be so encouraged if everyone was like, that's right, I signed up for this, 00:29:27.340 |
But on the flip side, you turn over, and these two bozos are like pointing the gun at each 00:29:32.660 |
It is like, man, knock it off, or I will shoot you, you know. 00:29:34.700 |
Or these two guys are completely like surprised, like, oh, they have machine guns, right? 00:29:45.400 |
And then everyone is like, you know what, forget it. 00:29:48.140 |
Like, there is no way you would continue to advance anything. 00:29:54.500 |
Because you recognize how important unity is. 00:29:59.260 |
You recognize how important unity is for any cause, especially a cause so weighty and important 00:30:05.860 |
as the cause of Christ, to exalt His name, to display His glory. 00:30:13.860 |
And so Apostle Paul makes of such kind of importance that he desires to see this church 00:30:26.180 |
Moving towards the last section, I am going to label this point three, which is point 00:30:35.620 |
This is to us, then, an incredible high calling, a privilege, and a great cause, right? 00:30:45.180 |
This is our incredible high calling, our privilege, and great cause. 00:31:01.300 |
This is a long sentence all tied together that Apostle Paul desires to see them basically 00:31:07.860 |
ready and prepared, unalarmed by the opponents, right? 00:31:13.020 |
And what's really interesting about this is he says, by motivation, he says, "For to you 00:31:19.860 |
it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer 00:31:25.460 |
for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and now here to be in 00:31:36.500 |
First, as he thinks about this whole section right here that is a command, and he says, 00:31:44.420 |
"I want you to conduct yourself like this, and what I want to see in you is this unity, 00:31:49.260 |
and I want you to be prepared in such a way where your eyes are wide open and you're not 00:31:53.380 |
surprised by the opponents who are coming at you. 00:31:56.100 |
You're not surprised by the suffering that's coming at you," right? 00:32:01.140 |
Here likewise again, he says, "Because of this, it has been granted to you," okay? 00:32:08.820 |
To not only believe, but to suffer for Christ's sake. 00:32:16.460 |
What's really interesting about this is that goes pretty contrary to our instinctual, instinctual 00:32:24.140 |
I believe for a lot of people, whenever they're faced with suffering, there is actually a 00:32:34.820 |
And then typically, even if you can't make sense of it, and you're trying to exercise 00:32:38.260 |
trust in Christ, then you say something like, "You know what? 00:32:41.700 |
I don't know why, but I'm pretty sure that God's going to carry me through it. 00:32:45.660 |
He's going to lead me out of it, and sooner or later, He's going to have an open door," 00:32:49.220 |
meaning He's going to deliver me from all this, right? 00:32:52.820 |
But then think about the kind of perception, think about the kind of perspective Apostle 00:32:57.220 |
Paul has when he considers that suffering for the sake of Christ is not something that 00:33:02.220 |
Christ is going to try to take you out of, but He has actually graced you with. 00:33:07.800 |
The term for granted is the same word, the verb form of charis, which is grace. 00:33:15.300 |
God has gifted it to you that you would believe upon the name of Jesus, but also that you'd 00:33:27.500 |
Now I think this is where I wanted to use the basketball analogy, okay? 00:33:33.420 |
I want you to think about this because I think as I was praying for this passage, I realized, 00:33:38.300 |
you know, the umph, the conviction of this passage, I'm going to receive it differently 00:33:47.580 |
I want you to imagine a basketball team, and you have two players, right? 00:33:56.620 |
Because it's the second overtime of the game, it's already gone forever, the last 30 seconds 00:34:04.780 |
He's got to make sure he's got the guys in there who know how to make the play and they're 00:34:10.340 |
He looks at his team, and one of the guys, let's call him Mighty Mark, okay? 00:34:15.780 |
He's sitting there and he's eager, he's like, "Put me in, coach!" 00:34:21.940 |
And so the coach says, "Mark, get in there, man! 00:34:25.220 |
No reserve, all out on the court, don't save anything, do it, man!" 00:34:31.980 |
All the training, all the sweat, all the tears, all that money, I'm ready!" 00:34:38.500 |
But then this other dude, we'll call him Scaredy Sam, right? 00:34:42.540 |
He's sitting there like, "Oh my gosh, I hope he doesn't call on me." 00:34:45.780 |
He pretends like he's about to have a cramp, so he's starting to massage his calf, and 00:34:51.980 |
And the coach comes over and starts walking, and as soon as he starts walking, Scaredy 00:34:55.380 |
Sam is like, "You know, that guy's got a pretty good jump shot! 00:35:01.500 |
Because I'm going to be honest, I think when it comes to Christian life, sometimes there 00:35:07.340 |
is not this eager anticipation where we have this excitement like, "Put me in the game! 00:35:21.900 |
I know the whole package of serving you means some discomfort, means burden, typically means 00:35:29.100 |
Whether it be frustrations, discomfort, or sometimes even physical like this. 00:35:39.740 |
As opposed to wondering and sitting back and thinking, "You know, I signed up, I love watching, 00:35:45.140 |
but man, this is like a high, intense, stressful moment!" 00:35:55.680 |
But I realize as a kind of personal conviction as I read this, I realized, "You know what? 00:36:00.500 |
Based on the condition of my heart, I will read verse 29 really differently." 00:36:09.980 |
And I want to leave then, you guys, with that kind of comment, which is, so far, there hasn't 00:36:18.500 |
It begins in this passage here with verse 27, "Conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the 00:36:24.700 |
You know there's more direct commands to come. 00:36:27.180 |
But typically what Apostle Paul does is he inspires us with a perspective. 00:36:32.720 |
And I challenge you, as we pray over this passage, do we have, like Apostle Paul, a 00:36:37.980 |
kind of worldview, an ability to judge the various circumstances, to make sense of it 00:36:45.500 |
I'm not going to judge like the world and say, 'You know what? 00:36:47.580 |
To live is always gain and to die just sucks.'" 00:36:53.460 |
But we can actually judge through spiritual eyes. 00:37:02.240 |
Do we have, with spiritual eyes, verse 29, where we can see the various things in our 00:37:17.820 |
When we all have that kind of worldview, we're going to have unity. 00:37:24.420 |
We're going to have likeness of interpretation. 00:37:26.580 |
We're going to have likeness of perspective, and we're going to have likeness of what is 00:37:33.920 |
So as a way to just kind of challenge us, by way of conclusion, this specific paragraph, 00:37:39.140 |
this portion, was a challenge to have the kind of worldview that really is in likeness 00:37:48.580 |
Lord, we do want to thank you again for challenging us. 00:37:57.700 |
We do recognize, God, that perhaps sometimes we're confused by the circumstances of our 00:38:03.260 |
lives, and then, Lord, sometimes we're confused by the desires of our heart. 00:38:07.900 |
Lord, sometimes we just don't know what we want. 00:38:11.300 |
But we thank you so much because your Word guides us to want the things that are weighty, 00:38:18.160 |
to want the things that matter to your heart. 00:38:21.100 |
And I pray, Father Lord, that we would not be so confused and feel like everything is 00:38:25.860 |
so nebulous, but, God, we would have such a clarity. 00:38:29.420 |
We want to live with such clearness of conscience, clarity of vision, of purpose, and what's 00:38:39.820 |
And I ask God that he would challenge us then to wash away whatever is the muck of the world 00:38:47.960 |
and God to continue to buy into what you tell us is the right path.