Success

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11.22.09

ALL OF US are driven by a desire to achieve success
although we all define success in different ways:
promotion, better job, degree, more money, house, car, marriage, children, comfortable situation, respect, reputation, certain accomplishment, to be remembered

how do you define success?
what are you trying to get?
or what do you have that you are trying hard not to lose?

but there is no guarantee of success
You may not succeed at the things you have made so important.
you may never reach the goals you have worked so hard to reach.

you may reach success temporarily only to lose it again.

you may reach success only to find it does not really make you happy
you are sure that it will make you happy
but once you get there it does not

it is never enough, you must reach more success
and then you look around for something else
or you have to worry over losing what we have achieved

Philippians 3.4-6

in Paul’s earlier life
he sought success and status in keeping the Law and being a strong Pharisee
He was a great success in his culture.
And he had high status.

he had prestige and power
he was a big dog among his people
a man to be watched
and he had worked hard for this status
studied, obeyed, been zealous and tenacious
he reached religious success

3.18-19
“their god is their stomach”
stomach is what you want for yourself
the desires you have for yourself
for your own success
this is your god

3.7
“Whatever was to my profit”
this is Paul’s list of achievements
what was in the profit column
he now puts in the loss column

this is not what he really wants
what had been so important and so central to his life
was now not important at all
not even something he sought anymore

What did he want now?

3.8
to know Christ Jesus

“for whose (Christ’s) sake I have lost all things”
he is willing to lose all other success and all status in order to know Jesus

is this the desire of your heart?
is this the success that drives you?
to know Jesus
is this more important to you than all other success?

8b
the success that he seeks
is gaining Christ

he considers everything else in comparison
rubbish
this is not saying that things of the life are trash
but in comparison, in contrast they are trash

I want to make three points
1. Success in gaining Christ comes not with our efforts to succeed but is given to us by God

a. a new status now
verse 9

the status is being right with God
greater than any fame or power or wealth or pleasure
because it is a status with God not men

there is no greater status than to be right with God
there is no greater status to achieve

b. Transformation when Christ returns
verse 11, 20-21

This is God’s work, not a thing we can do to accomplish this success

2. Success in gaining Christ is not a physical success but a spiritual power

verse 10

what is spiritual power?
the fruit of the Spirit
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
it is the work of God in you

3. Success in gaining Christ is not pleasure and gain but suffering and loss

verse 10
The Christian life of obedience to Christ comes with suffering and loss

3.12-14

Is this your definition of success?

Paul has not yet achieved it yet
it is the work of God’s grace when Christ returns

these are not things that he achieves by his own strength and efforts
they are gifts:
“Christ Jesus took hold of me” vs. 12
“God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” vs 14

this is the central pursuit of his life
he works hard to serve Christ
“I press on to take hold of it”
“I strain toward what is ahead”
“I press on toward the goal”

does this describe your life?
or is it the pursuit of something else?

Sanctify

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4.19.09

Drunk driving his child home stops at a bar
possessed by a desire for alcohol

Cop arresting drug dealers
possessed by a desire for money

Counselor working with a young woman
possessed by a desire to be with her

A man possessed by ambition to be great
cannot tear himself away from his work
neglects his own children

A man becomes possessed by anger and knows it is wrong to attack and abuse with his words, but is so overcome he can’t stop himself and he lashes out

A woman has a strong dislike or distaste for another person and talking with a friend is possessed by a desire to tell that friend all that she hates about the other
she know it is wrong

*
Have you ever been possessed?

Do you have moments during your day when you are possessed by the power of an evil urge?
In that moment you know it is wrong but you feel powerless to resist… you feel mastered, dominated, enslaved

in those moments you do wrong because you want to so strongly
you are intoxicated or drunk on the evil urge
you feel powerless to do anything else

*
I have good news today
the word “sanctify”

sanctify is a verb

sanctify is another way to say “make holy”
sanctified/holy 2 different English words
same Greek word
means “to separate from other things”

separation from what is displeasing to God
consecration to God’s service

God is the subject
God is the one who sanctifies
you can’t do it, you can’t accomplish it,
you can’t trust in yourself to do what is right

Work God does by grace
we can’t buy it or earn it from him
Rejoice! you are not on your own

*
1. “sanctify” is a past event, past action, decisive, definitive, finished
(this is not what we usually hear– but this is the most common use by far in the New Testament)

set apart by God to his service
to live a life pleasing to him

happened at the same time as conversion
and justification

1 Corinthians 1:2
2To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified (past) in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:11
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

at the same time, already done, in the past

Acts 26:18
15″Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’
” ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16′Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. 17I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

turned from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, forgiven of sins,
Sanctified already by faith– trusting in God
set apart by God in the past

Rom 6:6
6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—

released by God from old service to sin, slavery to sin, domination by that master

Do you think God is going to abandon the one he has sanctified?
He has set us apart for service to him!

Is he going to just give up on us, leave us to our own devices?

God set us apart so we would serve him , please him, do good

rejoice! be encouraged, have hope

2. “sanctify” is a future event
God has a future in mind for us
when we will be transformed and fully devoted to God with no sin

1 Thess 5:23
23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

he will sanctify you through and through, entirely
he is faithful and he will do it
we can trust in him

Ro 6.22
22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness (sanctification), and the result is eternal life.

Because you have been made a slave of God
there is a benefit– help from God
which will take you to the end of full sanctification and eternal life

Ro 8:29
29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

we have been predestined by God to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ

if God predestined us to that
it is sure, it will happen
rejoice, give thanks, trust in God, lean on him

3. “sanctify” is a present process

Rom 6:19
19Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness (sanctification).

we must offer our bodies to God to slavery to righteousness, and God will sanctify us completely

Rom 8:13
13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live

Here we are told that by God’s power and grace, by the work of the Spirit in us
we can put to death the misdeeds of the body

we have been given the grace, the sanctifying grace to do so

God has the power, and you can reject, leave, resist such urges that possess us in moments of all-controlling desires
by the Spirit

2 Cor 3:18
18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

We are being transformed by the Spirit
with ever increasing glory
a progression step by step
but he is at work in us

Philippians 1:6
6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

be began a good work in you (past)
he is carrying it on now (present)
and he will complete it (future)

Love One Another II

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3.22.09

Before I left for Africa I preached on John 13:34: “Love one another”
The point of the sermon was that being part of a church is not simply attending a Sunday service, but loving your brothers and sisters in that church all through the week

Today I want to look at 10 commandments
that explain what it means to “love one another”
These are commands addressed to the church, this is how we are to be the church

Galatians 5:13
1. “Serve one another”

Gal 6:1-2
2. “restore gently the one who is caught in sin”
3. “carry each other’s burdens”

Ephesians 4:32
4. “forgive one another”
5. “be kind and compassionate to one another”

Philippians 2:3-4
6. “in humility consider others better than yourselves”
7. “look to the interests of others”

Colossians 3:16
8. “teach and admonish one another” warn

1 Thessalonians 5:11
9. “encourage one another”
10. “build each other up”

I may be wrong about this in respect to a few of you.
But I do not see that most of us are actually obeying these commands.
We can’t obey these commands if we only see each other at the Sunday service.
In order to obey these commands you would have to be living in close community with other Christians.

I want to make a proposal: a very clear way for each one of you to obey these commands.

Join a with a few other people and commit to practice these commands together as a community or simple church.

I do not mean only join East Ridge Pres and gather with all of us on Sunday, but I mean go further and join a smaller gathering of people inside ERP.

These are like small, simple churches within the larger church.

Only in a church can you obey these commandments. But it is impossible to live in community with all 200 people.

Such a simple church is not just another meeting.

It is a group of people that commit to one another, covenant with one another to practice these commands every day with one another.

Imagine if you were in a simple church with just 10-20 people and everyone in the church covenanted with the others:

“I promise to serve you, restore you gently when you sin, carry your burdens, consider you better than myself, look to your interests, forgive you, be kind and compassionate to you, teach and admonish you, encourage you, and build you up.”

(other commands could be added to this as well)

This is not a Bible class, because a class meets once and is focused on the word and not each other, focused on learning the commands not on practicing them.

This is not a prayer meeting, does not just meet once only to pray for a list of requests.

It is not even a small group in the traditional sense because that only means people sitting in a circle facing each other not people devoted to one another.

And all of these smaller simple churches get together on Sunday for praise, thanksgiving and teaching.

you have heard the phrase: “every member a minister”
this means that all of us are ministering to one another (by obeying these commands)

*
Actual steps to take
We already have several groups: men‘s groups, women‘s groups, shepherding groups. Perhaps, some or all of these could transition to become like simple churches.

I encourage the leaders of these groups to raise the bar and emphasize these commands and to bring all the members to take such a covenant oath to one another.
If you are part of a group, I encourage you to covenant with the others in your group.

I plan to start two new groups that I will oversee. I already have a Sunday night group. But I plan to start one on Wednesday night and another one to meet on Sunday morning. All are welcome.

Do any of you feel called by God to begin and lead such a group? Come talk to me.
(a leader is not a teacher)

I encourage those of you not in a group to join one with the objective to obey these commandments by God’s grace.

My goal is to have every adult in such a simple church.

*
Jesus didn’t preach a message to individuals, he started a community.
to embrace Christ and the gospel
requires that you embrace the community, a church, a group of brothers and sisters to whom you are devoted in love.

*
Such a simple church is not just a community ministering to one another, they should also minister to other members of ERP and outsiders as well.

In this way such a simple church can act as a team and serve together the needy and the suffering. They can go out and do things as a team.

Such simple churches can also do evangelism by welcoming unbelievers into the group and extending care to them.
Groups should not be closed but should be open always ready to welcome another and always reaching out to unbelievers.

John Wesley in the 1700s
traveled around England preaching in the open air and he would make many converts

his converts attend the Sunday service at the local Anglican church
but he also gathered these people into simple churches, he called classes or bands, of between 5 and 20 people.

They held each other accountable and challenged each other, loved each other, and they also ministered to the sick and poor. These groups had lay leaders.

At his death, there were 10,000 such groups in Britain and the United States.
“a company of men having the form and seeking the power of godliness, united in order to pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, to watch over one another in love”

A Church for the Outside Community

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12.30.07

I was ordained in January of 2004.
In the last 4 years I have not baptized a new believer.
The church is growing in number
but almost entirely by taking Christians from other churches
not by making converts from the world

And this is true of most churches that grow.
Their new members come from other churches.
and from the children of families already in the faith

Having almost no impact on the oustide community

I want to examine 3 reasons why I believe this is the case.
(there are, of course, many other reasons as well)

I. The first problem is that we speak the gospel only
and we do not do the gospel

speaking the gospel is not sufficient
We must do the gospel

Imagine a church that was known not for going door-to-door (speaking)
or handing out tracts or inviting people to come to a service (speaking)
or holding revivals or conferences,
but known for doing good to the people in the community.

Imagine a church that was a blessing to the people in the community
who do not go to the church.

Imagine getting a reputation for being those who do the gospel,
not simply speak it.

I don’t think they listen to gospel words preached on the street,
presented door to door, written in tracts, etc.
They cannot hear our words about the gospel,
when our actions deny the gospel.

Q: Are we doing good to the people in our city/ community
as members not of East Ridge Pres, but Christ’s church?

What do I mean by “doing the gospel”?

Ephesians 5:1-2

We are to live a life of love
because this is the way of God
because this is the way Christ loved
this is the gospel!
doing the gospel is imitating the love of God
and the love of Christ for sinners

Colossians 3:12

Why does Paul tell the Colossians to clothe themselves
with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience?
Because the gospel is that God and Jesus acted toward us
with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
He is telling them to do the gospel.
In fact, Paul never commands lay Christians
to evangelize and preach the gospel to outsiders.
But he tells them dozens of times to do the gospel.

1 Peter 2:12

The pagans/the outsiders
those in the community
are to see in us good deeds:
deeds of love and mercy, gospel deeds.
This will result in the conversion of some
but even if they do not convert– this is our duty.

1 Peter 3:1

A wife is taught to win over her unbelieving husband
by her actions not her words.
It is my opinion that this is good advice
for most of us in many of our relationships with the outside community.
We should win the community by doing the gospel.

II. A second problem is that American churches are filled with American individualists.

In the American culture we put the individual before the community
and we live in isolated private individualistic worlds.

We shield ourselves from the community
and maintain our private worlds against the public world.
We hide in our homes as sanctuaries.
No one can get in without our permission.

Unlike other cultures in the world
where your home stands open to the community
where you don’t barricade yourself in your own home
but you live with the whole community
through the day

Typical American man has a wife and 2 kids
he goes to work where he comes in contact with a few people out of the necessity of his work, the rest of the people he doesn’t need and he ignores them.
At noon he buys his lunch from someone he does not know.
He gets in his car and drives home into his garage, closes the garage door behind him, goes straight into the house and does not come out again until it is time to go to work. He turns on the TV, eats his dinner with his household, and remains in his sanctuary.
On Sunday he goes to a service. He shakes a few hands, sits through the service, shakes a few hands on the way out, goes out to eat and sits at a table with his family alone and then goes right back to his house again.

Where is the opportunity for love to the community?
Many Americans Christians very rarely love anyone outside a very small circle of Christians and family.

Philippians 2:4
Look to others interests beside your own
(notice next verse– we are to do this because it is the gospel of Jesus)

Individualism is looking to your own interests (your households interest).
the gospel way is looking to others interest

Individualism is exclusion.
It is shutting out people that we don‘t want in.
Individualism is a rejection of the gospel.
The gospel is about embracing those outside.
Looking to their interests.

III. A third problem is that Churches emphasize Church services and programs over everything else.

Galatians 6:10

There is a call here to do good especially to your fellow believers
but there is also a clear command to do good to all

We think of church and Christianity as the big worship service and this distracts us from what God really told us to do: love one another and do good to all men
Church services are not wrong.
It is just that they are secondary.
The love commands are primary.
We have it reversed.
We put church services as primary.
When we do church services, we think we are doing good.
But this is not doing good.
It is possible to attend church services and not do good to anyone– in the church or outside in the community.
God never told Christians to hold big worship services and build big buildings.
He did tell us to get together and love one another.
He did tell us to do good to all people.
This is primary.

Important Conclusion:
This is not a technique to get more converts.
We are to love because Christ loved us, not as a ruse to score a convert.
Christians and the people in churches are to live for the benefit of outsiders.
We are to live for the benefit of unbelievers.
We are to live for the benefit of Muslims and Jews and Atheists and the average people who have no clear beliefs.
We must love the people who are raw: uncooked by years in the church.

We are not told “Do this because you will get converts.”
We are told, “Do this because this is the way God is. This is the gospel.”
To speak gospel and not do gospel is a lie and hypocrisy.

Resurrection Sunday

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4.8.07

In 1928 Alexander Fleming
a Scottish research scientist working in London
left a culture plate on his workbench while he was on a 2 week holiday
when Flemming returned he found that
bacteria had grown on the plate like a lawn covering the entire plate
except for a halo area around the yellow-green mold
that had also grown on the plate
A spore of this mold had floated in the air from another lab
and landed on the plate while he was on vacation
Flemming believed that the mold was stopping the growth of the bacteria
it was a discovery that changed the course of history
of course, as most of you know the active ingredient in that mold was penicillin
Fleming reported his finding in a British Journal in 1929
not until 1939 did Howard Florey and others develop
penicillin into something that could be administered to humans
at first they did not have enough
they would give people some and they would start to improve
but it was not enough and they would die
In March of 1942 Mrs. Anne Miller
was dying of an infection after a miscarriage
when doctor obtained a teaspoon of penicillin, still an experimental drug
her temperature was 105.5 when she took it
by the next morning her temperature was normal
for the first time in a month
she lived until 1999
the discovery of penicillin has saved the lives of not millions,
not tens of millions, but hundreds of millions of people

But Today we are celebrating a historical event
much more monumental than the discovery of penicillin:
the bodily resurrection from the dead of Jesus of Nazareth
in the year 30 AD
Easter changed history
because it changed people
and it changed the actions of people,
hundreds of millions
it didn’t just keep them alive a little while longer like penicillin
it changed the lives they lived

Easter sermons are usually about the past and future
because Jesus was raised from the dead
we will be raised after we die
and it is absolutely true that Easter points
to the final resurrection of the dead
but I want to concentrate on what Easter means for you today:
April 8, 2007

1. The resurrection power can be known in the present as well as the future
Philippians 3:10

Paul is talking about what he is seeking in his present experience
he says “I want to know Christ”
but then he goes on to explain what it means to know Christ
to know the power of his resurrection in his present life
and to share in his sufferings
the same power of God that raised Christ from the dead
can work in his people now in the present
they come together: power and suffering
the power of the resurrection takes us through the suffering

in the next verse (11)
he looks forward to the future resurrection
at the end of the age — dead raised
but you must see that verse 10
in contrast is not talking about the future
but resurrection power now in our lives
There is a future goal we are aiming at
but even now we are to be knowing the power of that future day

2. The resurrection power does a work that progresses toward the future resurrection
Philippians 1:6

God has started a good work in us
that he will carry on all the way to completion
on the day when Jesus returns
it starts, progresses, is completed
Easter means
that God is working right now
inside his people
in a way that advances, grows, progresses
toward completion

If you stand on the east coast of the US
and look East to London
there is nothing you can do to get there
you must be picked up but the power of a plane (or boat)
and carried there by that power
it must take you by progression all the way to London
2 hours into that flight you are not there yet
but you are on your way
the power has begun to work
and is carrying it on to completion in London

you cannot get to your destination
(final resurrection)
unless you are carried there
by work of resurrection power in the present

Q: what is this good work
inside of his people?

3. The resurrection power produces obedience to God in us
Philippians 2:12-13

once again you see the progress
Paul says you obeyed
when I first preached to you about Jesus
you kept obeying after that
now continue to do so
keep obeying even though I am gone
“work out your salvation”
this means
“work continuously at it until it is completed”
this work you are doing is “obedience”
you have been obeying,
continue to obey working until your salvation is complete
on the day of resurrection

“with fear and trembling”
in awe of Christ’s returning
live in awe of that,
obey looking to that day

verse 13 again
even though we work hard it doesn’t mean it is our work
we are to work hard
because God is working in us
to give us the will and power to do what pleases God
the power of the resurrection does this work in us:
produces obedience in us,
what pleases God

Kiribati is a nation in the South Pacific
made up of 33 islands
1.9 million square miles of land
and home to 100,000 people
as the level of the ocean rises slightly every year
Many scientists believe that in about 50 years
most if not all of their islands will be under water
leaving all the people of the nation without a home
This is a future event, it may even be longer than 50 years,
it might be 80,
but can they just say
“that is a long way off. We will worry about it when that day comes.”
No, of course not, because every year the islands will shrink.
They must begin to prepare now.

Many people look to the final resurrection and life after death
as something that is a long way off
it does not change what we do now
but Paul is teaching in these passages
that everyday even now
we must be living in resurrection power
in order to be ready for that last resurrection day
You must be ready for the resurrection day by
1. working hard at obeying Jesus
2. praying for God’s grace and resurrection power to work in you

only those who work now
only those who God works in now
will be ready for the final resurrection
are you preparing yourself now by the grace and power of God
that comes through Jesus Christ and his resurrection?