01-06-13 OVER THE EDGE

I had intended to take us right back into our study of Philippians this morning,

but although we’ll head that direction

we’ll spend most of our time looking at some other things along the way.

And the first thing I want to do

is to make just a few additional comments

about something I mentioned in passing last week.

I told you about the lady I sat next to on our flight from San Francisco to Seattle,

about the three pastors she’d seen crash and burn over the years,

and about her question to me, asking how I’ve avoided the same struggles.

And I told her that one of the great advantages I’ve had

is that of living a very visible life in a small town

surrounded by accountable relationships that help guard and protect me.

But as I thought about that this past week

I decided it might be of value

if I spent just a few minutes

putting that comment into a broader framework.

Our Lord is a master at rebuilding the lives of those of us who reach out to Him,

reforming us, step-by-step, into people of true, solid moral integrity

in a world where our culture as a whole doesn’t even think in terms of moral right or wrong.

In just a few more verses in our Philippians study

we’re going to hear Paul say it perfectly.

He says in Philippians 2:15 that one of our Lord’s goals for us

is that we... prove ourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world...

OK, there are at least four major tools our Lord uses in our lives

to help bring moral integrity into our lives.

The first is what happens between our spirit and our God

when He enters our life.

It is impossible to truly meet the King

and discover the depth of His love for us

without it creating within us a love for Him and a longing to live a life that honors Him.

Christ Himself described it as a hunger and thirst for righteousness.

It isn’t religious guilt,

it’s a longing to honor the God who died for us,

and this longing is the foundation of all change that takes place within us.

The second major tool used by our Lord in rebuilding our lives

is His growing revelation to us of who we really are.

We are not just sinners saved by grace,

we are now and will forever be the holy ones of God,

sons and daughters of the King.

It’s one thing to say to ourselves, “I can’t do that because it’s wrong.”,

but it is a very different thing to say,

“I won’t do that because it’s not who I am...

it is completely inconsistent with my true identity as a child of God,

and with the role and purpose He has given me in this world.”

That is us being transformed by the renewal of the mind,

as Paul talks about it in Romans 12:2.

Then, the third major tool God uses for practical changes in our lives,

and the one I was talking about last week,

is what I like to call the audience we have chosen to play to.

And let me explain what I mean.

Each of us enters this world with a moral conscience

given to us by our God

to keep us from destroying ourselves through immorality

before He can call us to Himself.

I picture the conscience as a three foot high brick wall built around us,

but it is a wall without mortar.

With all of us there are places where we have lunged out at something

that we believed we had to have to meet our needs,

and we crawled over that brick wall in pursuit of it.

But when we cross it we knock off a few bricks

and each time we climb over it’s easier and easier

until before long where once there was a wall

now there is just a doorway that provides no resistance at all.

When we come to our Lord

He doesn’t replace the bricks,

but for those who turn to Him

He does build a second line of defense around those weak spots,

and He does it most often through giving us a few crucial relationships in our lives,

people we love,

people who would be deeply wounded

if we gave free reign to our flesh impulses.

This is that audience I was talking about,

the audience we have chosen to play to - the ones who matter,

the ones who matter more than our flesh.

For me, by far the most important audience I will ever have is Sandee.

My life is an endless stream of choices I make

simply because I don’t want to cause her pain,

and because I want to honor her and my relationship with her.

And then, there are a few other very significant relationships I have

that also form a crucial part of the audience I play to,

people that my Lord uses in my life

to call me to a higher standard because I care about them

and I want them to truly see Christ in me.

And this audience I play to

is a powerful protection against my allowing my flesh to run wild.

And then, fourth, there is a much broader group of people

for whom I am, at least as some level, responsible.

Most of you are in that group.

It is only right that my teaching has credibility to you

only to the degree that you see what I teach working in my own life.

If God’s growth program for us goes as He intends,

all four of these factors work together

to make practical righteous living a growing reality in our lives.

OK, let’s move back into our study of Philippians.

We are studying the book of Philippians together,

and our study has brought us to

the last 2 verses of chapter 1.

These verses are a part of a section

that began in verse 27,

a section in which Paul is describing

what it means for us

to conduct ourselves

in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

So far we have seen 3 elements

of this worthy walk.

Last week we listened to Paul as he encouraged us to

“...in no way be alarmed by our opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for us, and that too, from God.”

As we looked at that statement last week

I suggested that Paul is telling us that

the greatest opponent we face in any situation

is not the opponent itself,

but rather our attitude toward that opponent.

He is not just talking about

the power of positive thinking -

‟think nice things

and the problem will go away”,

‟think happy thoughts

and the world will be a happy place.”

Years ago I had some sleepware that was covered with hundreds of bright yellow smiley faces,

and around the waist band it said -

‟Don’t worry...be happy...don’t worry...be happy...”

(I bought them because they were on sale.)

That is not what Paul is suggesting

when he tells us to,

“In no way be alarmed by our opponents...”

Paul’s life was far too real

to ever allow him to get caught up

in any kind of “think happy thoughts and your problems will all go away” stupidity.

There’s a passage in II Corinthians 11 in which

Paul is defending his position as an apostle

by comparing his life

with the lives of some of the false teachers

who were disrupting things at Corinth.

And in the context of offering his defense he says,

23] Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as if insane) I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. [24] Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. [25] Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. [26] I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; [27] I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

Paul knew all about real life,

and real pain,

and real suffering.

And we saw last week

that when he tells us to,

“In no way be alarmed by our opponents...”

he is not telling us that if we just put on a happy face

or to slip on a pair of happy-face pajamas,

all our problems will go away.

He’s calling us

to take our eyes off of the problem

long enough so that we can focus clearly

on who our God is

and how He relates to us,

and then set that knowledge

along side of our opponent

and compare the two.

It is our knowledge of our Lord

that forms the basis for dealing with

the terror we initially feel

whenever some new (or old)

opponent shows his face in our life.

Satan says, “Look around you,

look behind you,

look ahead of you -

it’s a scary place out here, isn’t it?

See what good reasons there are to fear!”

Our Lord says, “:Look at ME,

and see what good reason there is to trust.”

Paul makes this clear

in the last phrase of Philippians 1:28

when he says

that our confidence is a sign of destruction

for our opponent,

and of salvation for us,

and that too, from God.

He’s talking about a real live God

involving Himself

in the very real problems of His children.

This is foreign stuff for us, of course.

Prior to our submission to Christ,

our entire life had been lived

with the clear understanding

that we were the bottom line

in every situation in life.

We may have believed God was there,

but we certainly had no reason to assume

that He was involved in the intimate

daily issues of our life,

or that He had any reason to do so.

Then suddenly we enter into a whole new relationship with God,

a relationship in which

He calls us His sons and daughters

and urges us to call Him “Papa”

and tells us our big brother, Jesus,

will never leave us or forsake us.”

But we’ve been orphans our whole life,

and getting use to having a family,

and especially this family

takes a life-time of relearning

and rethinking.

I was doing some work a while back

with the first few verses of II Peter 1,

and came across that verse once again

where Peter says in II Peter 1:4,

He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

And as I was going over that verse

it hit me once again

how we just always start out

getting the basics of the Christian life

all backwards and upside down.

We grab our little religious mind-sets

and begin with the assumption

that the most important issue

is our commitment to God.

Are we committed to Him,

are we faithful to Him,

are we fighting for Him?

That’s the type of message

we just naturally come up with,

because we have lived our whole life

with ourselves being the bottom line,

the final resource in every situation,

and it’s just natural that we should

develop a religion in which

we do exactly the same thing.

You know -

we try to develop a walk with God in which

the success of the whole thing

rests ultimately upon our ability to deliver the goods,

our ability to remain faithful to our God.

And so we commit

and recommit

and then recommit again.

But when I read the New Testament

I see a very different message.

I see a different message being communicated

in the way Christ approached His disciples,

and I see a different message being communicated

in the writings of Peter

and Paul

and John.

You see, whereas we begin focusing on

our commitment to God,

God begins by talking to us

about His commitment to us.

Look at those words of Peter’s that I just read:

He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

If we would have written that verse for Peter

we would have come up with something along these lines:

We have granted to Him our unwavering commitment to faithfulness, in order that by that we might become partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption

that is in the world through lust.

Now doesn’t that sound more like

that old time religion we’re accustomed to?

Come on folks, try it again!

You can do it for Him!

Join the ranks of the faithful few

who give of their all for the Master.

But that’s not what Peter says.

He says that the solid ground

in this whole thing

isn’t our commitment to God,

it’s GOD’s commitment to us.

He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises -

He has taken great care

to share with us

exactly what kind of a God He is,

and how we can expect Him to act,

and how He will relate to us

in the midst of all of our turmoil of life,

because it’s not our commitment to Him

but rather HIS commitment to us

that provides the solid ground in life.

Let me tell you how I see this working

in our daily walk with the King.

And to help us get a hold of what I see happening here,

I want you first of all to picture

a father and his six year old son

on a hike together

on a rugged mountain trail.

Dad is leading the way,

and his boy is trotting along after him.

As they are hiking along

a squirrel runs down across the path

right in front of the boy.

The squirrel stops, looks at the boy,

then scampers off over the edge of the trail

and down the side of the mountain.

The boy sees the squirrel run over the side

and wants to try to catch it,

so he runs over to the edge of the trail,

and dad turns around just in time

to see his son slip and plunge over the side of the mountain.

The boy plummets straight down about 15 feet and until he smashes onto a small rock ledge.

He’s cut and scraped and bruised pretty badly,

but nothing is broken.

But the little guy is just terrified.

He’s crying

and screaming

and clawing at the bank trying to get up.

From up above his father can see

that the boy’s safety depends upon his son

sitting very still on that ledge

until the father can make a loop in his rope

and lower it down to the boy

and then get him to put the rope around his chest

so that his father can pull him back to safety.

But the first and the greatest problem

is to get the boy to calm down

and follow his dad’s instructions.

So the father begins by calling out to his panic-stricken boy,

“Son, listen to me! LISTEN to me! Can you hear my voice?

LOOK AT ME!

Do you see me?

OK now listen very carefully to what I have to say.

I promise you’ll be safe if you listen to me.

But it’s very important

that you follow my instructions exactly.

Do you understand?

Now, the first thing I want you to do

is to sit down.

SIT DOWN, son... trust me!

I can and I will get you out of this,

but you must obey me.

Now, stay sitting,

and when I lower this rope to you

I want you to put the loop

over your head and then around your chest,

under your arms.

OK, now hold onto the rope

and I’ll pull you up.”

That’s how I see what Peter is saying to us in this verse.

We are that little boy,

scraped and bruised and rather beat up by life,

scratching and clawing at the bank

convinced that our only hope

is to somehow find our own way

back to where we should be.

We’re yelling and screaming

and scared

and completely incapable

of fixing the mess we got ourselves into.

And into this confusion

there are two critical messages

that our Heavenly Father wants to communicate to us.

They are very simply,

#1. MY CHILD! LISTEN TO ME!

and

#2. NOW TRUST ME!

Listen to Me!...Trust Me!

That’s what Peter is saying when he tells us that:

God has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

Through those promises He’s saying to us,

“Stop wiggling around and listen carefully to what I say. You can’t get yourself off that ledge, but I can

and I will if you’ll just listen carefully

and trust what I say.”

And the heart of His whole program for us rests not upon our drumming up

greater commitment to Him or activity for Him,

but rather upon our hearing

and trusting His commitment to us.

Christ’s relationship to His disciples in the gospels is a perfect illustration.

He told them right up front what was really going on

between them and Himself.

In John 15:16 Christ told His men,

16] "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.”

He wanted them to understand

that He was the One who started this whole thing,

and that the success of His plan for them

rested not upon their ability to hang onto Him,

but rather upon His ability to hang onto them

and His willingness to fulfill

the promises He made to them.

I think probably some of you right now

feel like that little boy stuck on that ledge.

You took off after that little squirrel

and before you knew what happened

the bottom of your world collapsed around you.

You got yourself pretty beat up on the way down,

and right now there seems to be

no way out.

But I also think above all of your howling

and clawing at the bank

there’s another voice trying to get your attention.

It’s the voice of your Lord,

your heavenly Father,

and He’s saying something like this:

“Listen to Me! Just sit still for a minute and listen!

Quit striving, and discover

that I really am God.

OK, you’ve tried it your way,

and your way didn’t work so well.

Now why don’t you try it My way?

You’re going to have to listen carefully

to exactly what I say,

and you’re going to have to obey Me.

But I want you to know,

I can and I will get you out of this mess.

I will never leave you,

I’ll never abandon you,

I’ll never let go of the rope.

But it’s essential that you listen carefully to what I say

and follow My instructions.”

You see, there is a kind of religious obedience that is born out of

a sense of obligation to try to

get God’s approval

or earn His blessing or His acceptance

in exchange for what we think we can offer Him.

You know,

“If I just obey Him here

then maybe He’ll help me there.”

Or,

“God, if you’ll just get me out of this,

I promise I’ll go to church every week

for the rest of my life,

or be a missionary in Africa.”

That’s all just little manipulation games

we try to play with the Creator.

That’s not what Peter and Paul are talking about here.

The kind of obedience they’re talking about

is the kind that grows out of

hearing clearly what our Lord is saying to us

and then choosing to follow His lead,

no matter what our emotions

or our past

or the culture around us may be screaming at us.

We can trust what He says!

Well, we got a little side-tracked today,

but we’ll get back to Philippians next week.