09-15-13 The Power Of Our Point Of Focus

We are returning to our study

of the New Testament Book of Philippians this morning.

With a study that has gone on as long as this one has

it’s helpful to offer a bit of review occasionally

just so we know who's talking to us

and why he wrote.

The book was written by the Apostle Paul,

the man selected by God

to move the message of Christ

out of its exclusively Jewish roots

and into the non-Jewish world.

Paul wrote the letter from prison.

He was in Rome,

waiting for his trial before Caesar

on charges of treason against the Roman Empire

because of the disruption

his preaching had caused among the Jewish people in Jerusalem.

He had been in prison for a number of months

at the time of the writing of this letter.

Paul had a close personal tie with the church at Philippi,

but following his arrest in Jerusalem

communication between Paul

and the church had broken off.

For about two years

the Christians had no idea where Paul was

or how things were going with him.

Then they heard he was in prison in Rome

and immediately put together a care package for him

and sent one of their pastors, Epaphroditus,

to Rome with their gifts

in order to encourage Paul.

On the trip Epaphroditus became extremely sick,

nearly dying as a result of his illness.

Paul wrote this letter in response

to their gift and kindness to him.

As we have studied this short book, however,

it has become evident that there was

something far more significant going on in this letter as well.

As Paul writes,

he knows that this may well be

the last communication he will ever have with these Christians.

He is on trial for his life.

If he is found guilty of the charge of treason

his execution will follow immediately.

He has already been in prison for months.

He is in one of the deepest winters of his life,

a winter that may never see a Spring

that follows it.

Through this amazing little book

Paul reveals to his readers

the principles that equip us to survive

both the prisons

and the winters of our lives.

This is a book designed for real life,

a book written for pain,

and for fear,

and for those times of apparent hopelessness.

As we've worked our way through the book

we've already seen a number of the principles

offered to us by Paul

for winter/prison survival.

Most recently we heard him say these words:

Phil. 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.

Phil. 3:13 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,

Phil. 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

That is Paul modeling for us

the logical, reasonable approach

to living the Christian life.

This is Paul waking up each morning

to the clatter of the manacles

around his wrists.

This is a man whose only apparent options

are either another day in prison

or a trial that may result in his execution.

This is a man who,

from all human perspective,

appears to have no good options whatsoever.

And yet, this is the point at which

we hear him offering

the most powerful,

forward-looking call to life

recorded for us anywhere in his writings.

...I press on toward the goal for prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

He sounds like a college graduate

with his diploma in one hand,

his job-offer of a lifetime in the other,

his new car at the curb,

and his bride on his arm,

heading into a glorious future.

And we see here Paul revealing to us

one of those crucial principles

for survival -

God and God alone determines the future

for His children.

This is Paul saying to us,

“ Don't look at the chains around my wrists and legs,

don't look at the bars on these windows,

LOOK AT MY GOD!

HE determines my future.”

This is nothing new, of course.

Do you remember your Old Testament?

Do you remember Moses

with several million terrified Israelites following him,

pursued by the entire military force of Egypt,

crammed up against the Red Sea?

Nice choices -

do you want to be slaughtered

or drowned?

Some of you have been there this past year, haven't you?

Some of you have known what it felt like

to be where, from man's perspective,

there were no answers,

no hope,

no way out.

And I have seen some of you do

the same thing Moses did

when he took his eyes off the sea in front of him,

and stopped his ears

to the clatter of the Egyptian chariots in the distance,

the same thing Paul did

when he took his eyes off the bars on his window,

and stopped his ears

to the clatter of his own chains,

and turned his eyes to his God.

And in the process

you have discovered

He can and He will make a way for you too.

You know, don't you,

that every life will know some Red Seas

and some prison walls.

My hope is that you also know

that those are the times

when we have the best opportunity

we will ever have

to discover the answers

to the two most important questions we will ever face -

1. Is my God really there?

2. Does He really care about ME?

By the way,

those also happen to be the two questions

we will try to avoid asking at all costs -

I mean REALLY asking.

We will exhaust every other resource available

before asking those two questions

because in our spirits

we know that the answers to those two questions

have the power to devastate our lives.

If God is REALLY there,

that knowledge brings with it

profound implications for my life.

It involves accountability,

and submission,

and interaction with Him

that changes all the boundaries

and all the rules of life.

And if He really CARES about me,

it means I personally hold a value to Him

which in turn means my life

and my actions

and my choices have a significance far beyond anything

I could ever have imagined on my own.

And as long as I'm getting just a little off track here,

let me just mention that

Satan's greatest tool

for preventing us from asking those two questions

is religion.

Religion is designed by Satan

for the purpose of soothing our need

for God-awareness

without allowing it to become personal.

If Satan can provide us with

some form of significant

or meaningful religious experience

without any personal,

individual,

practical interaction taking place in our lives,

he has scored a mighty victory for evil.

If we can walk into a great cathedral

and “feel” close to God

without true, personal interaction taking place between us and our Creator,

he has diffused our God-hunger.

If we can get caught up

in the “feel” of praise and worship

and celebration of a large congregation

without it becoming intensely personal

between us and our God,

it allows our soul to hide from God.

God has perfectly crafted His Word

so as to make it a personal communication between us and Himself.

He offers it to us in the form of personal letters,

and then, in the context of those letters

He offers us personal promises -

His commitments to us,

describing who He is,

and how He relates to us.

The truth is, though,

that we usually do not reach out to Him

and we do not grip those promises

until our hands are shackled,

our back is against the Red Sea,

and our ears hear the pounding hooves of the Egyptian Army.

Then we're faced with the most crucial choice of our life-

Do we shake our fist in the face of our God

and dare to ask Him

why He allowed this to happen to us?

Or do we drop to our knees

and, perhaps for the first time in our lives,

begin asking the right questions:

GOD! Are you really there?

And GOD, do you care about me?

Heb. 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Well, our study of Philippians

has brought us to Philippians 3:17-21,

a passage in which Paul offers us

yet another survival tool for the Prisons of our lives.

He writes,

Phil. 3:17-19 Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

In the few minutes we have remaining

I want to attempt to offer this passage to you in three statements.

1. First of all, Paul reminds us that God has carefully provided each of us

with some good examples in our lives,

people who are fighting the same battles we're fighting and finding God faithful,

or people who know

what we're going through

and really, truly care about us.

I remember a number of years ago

talking with a young man in college

who was trying so hard

to throw out his Christian heritage.

He said he was talking with a group of his friends,

all of whom were at the same place he was at.

They saw the games

and the facade

and the hypocrisy in the churches around them.

But he said every one of them

also had someone in their lives

they couldn't just throw out -

someone who really cared,

someone whose life they could not explain apart from the reality of God,

someone who loved God

and loved them, too.

That's the way our God works.

For the past 2000 years

God has been clothing His truth

in human flesh,

OUR human flesh, for all to see.

And if you’ve ever been there

you know the incredible power it has

when you are with another Christian

who has been exactly where you are,

who has fought exactly the same battle you’re fighting,

and who has come through having found redemption and deliverance in their God.

Their voice

and their message

and their love has a power like nothing else in life.

And my first statement is this:

God has provided every one of us with at least one good example.

And then he offers us the flip side.

2. We are also surrounded by an endless stream of those who have chosen to do it wrong.

I believe Paul is talking here

about people within the church world,

people who identify themselves

as “Christians”,

people who proclaim our doctrine,

and preach salvation,

and make their home

under the banner of the cross.

And yet Paul describes them as “enemies of the cross of Christ”.

And I think he does so,

not because they are attacking the truth with their words,

but because they are denying the truth

with their lives.

And in so doing

they make it so much harder

for those around them to choose righteousness...to choose to do what they know is right.

Do you remember the first time

you discovered that some Christian you admired

had a hidden life of immorality?

If it hasn't happened to you yet,

it will.

Do you remember how it affected you?

Do you remember those thoughts?

If HE can't make it work,

how can I ever hope to?

If SHE can't live a life of moral purity,

what hope is there for me?”

Do you remember the discouragement you felt?

Do you remember the hopelessness you wrestled with?

Do you remember how long it took you to recover and recommit yourself

to your own upward call in Christ Jesus?

Paul calls such people, “enemies of the cross of Christ”.

And he leaves no room for misunderstanding.

He is talking about those

who have allowed the driving desires of the flesh to have free reign in their lives.

Their glory is in their shame.

In other words,

rather than being ashamed of their immorality,

they glory in it,

they cultivate it,

they refine it,

they allow it to dominate their lives.

In our society today,

these are the ones who love to make

sharp distinctions between

“Public” and “Private” lives.

You know, of course,

that there is no such thing as a Biblical “right to privacy” granted to the Christian.

In fact,

God wants our lives

to be as public

and open

and exposed as possible.

He talks about setting us on a lamp stand

for all to see.

So,

first of all, God has provided each of us

with some examples of those who are doing it right - not perfect,

not sinless,

but who really are fighting well

the fight God has given them to fight.

And then second, every one of us

also find ourselves

surrounded by bad examples.

And then my third statement- not profound, but absolutely crucial to our survival -

focus on the good ones.

That's a choice, my friends,

and it is a choice we have to make

if we are ever going to survive.

If I chose to

I could recall and focus on a dozen or more significant teachers in the past 45 years

who's lives crumbled into pathetic little piles of immorality.

But I find it far more profitable to recall

a few good men

who will forever be the anchors of my life.

Men like Hugh Salisbury,

my Bible teacher in college

who's 12 year old son

was killed by a drunk driver

while he was walking home from school.

He hurt

as only a parent can hurt

when their only son is taken away,

but he kept right on trusting his God

and teaching His truth

and caring about me, his student.

Two years after I got out of school

I heard he was going to speak at a church near me

and I went to hear him.

I was just one face in a sea of people,

sitting in the pew about 3 rows from the front.

While they were singing the hymn

just before he was to speak

he saw me in the congregation,

and, while everyone was singing,

he came down from the platform

and shook hands with me,

and asked me how it was going.

Two years later he still cared about me,

about my life,

about my future.

He lived what he believed,

and in so doing he provided me

with an anchor,

a solid place for the rest of my life.

And more than anything else

I wanted to be like that man,

I wanted to live a life like that man.

And it has fascinated me to see

the way in which

those anchor relationships

become a permanent part of our lives.

Following that one final brief encounter at that church

I had no contact with Prof. Salisbury again for years.

But one summer during the first few years

after Peninsula Bible Fellowship started

one Sunday morning

a group of counselors from Solid Rock Bible Camp came to our service.

In talking with one of those counselors

I found out that he was attending

Multnomah School of the Bible,

and that Prof. Salisbury was now on staff there.

I asked that student to deliver a message for me.

I said, “Tell him I said hello, and tell him at least one of his former students turned out OK.”

You see, that's the way those relationships affect us.

There's a part of us

that always wants them to know

their input into our life

made a difference,

it changed us,

it gave us hope,

it became a certain proof for our souls

of the truth about our God.

It wasn't his ideas that affected me so deeply.

It was the example of his life.

It was the fact that he lived in the same world we all lived in,

facing the same pain,

the same questions,

the same confusion as everyone else.

And yet through it all he still knew and boldly affirmed that his God was still good,

and his God was still adequate

for anything that came into his life.

God, in His kindness,

will give each of us a Hugh Salisbury in our life.

It may not be someone who stands up front.

In fact, most of the time it’s not.

But it will be someone who’s life and faith is clearly visible to us.

And we will know that they have faced the same questions we have faced,

and felt the same depth of pain that we’ve felt,

and they have come through it knowing their God and His love

is the only safe path and solid footing

through the evil that saturates our world.

And in these few verses here in Philippians

I see Paul calling us

to focus on those people in our lives.

There will always be the failures,

the flesh-soaked losers around us.

The road of religion is littered with them.

Let them go,

walk away from them,

leave them to God.

For, our survival in the prisons of our lives,

in the Januarys of our years,

requires us to focus on the ones

who not only preached the truth,

but who lived it as well.