Thursday, April 29. 2010ReachingSermon - "Reaching" - Philippians 3:12-16 Series - The Joy Letter #15 Listen by clicking the box or download the mp3 here. One of my greatest joys is when my boys reach for me. They do so for different reasons and at different times, but there is still something about the reach. The baby reaches for me instinctively. When I walk into the room and he hasn’t seen me in a while, he reaches for me. When he is frustrated because his attempts at crawling and walking do not materialize as he had hoped, he reaches for me. Sometimes, he is just tired of being held by someone else and he reaches for me. When those little arms reach out, it is very hard to resist scooping him up and giving him a great big bear hug. I love the reach! The older boy reaches as well, but in a much different way. He doesn’t necessarily reach for me when I walk into a room. If he’s busy, he throws up a hand and says “Hey Dad!” He reaches when he’s been hurt, or when he’s scared, or when he’s not feeling well. He reaches for me when he hasn’t seen me in a while. And because he is very mobile, his reaches turn into hugs without much effort on my part. There is one thing that I cannot fathom doing when my children reach for me. I cannot fathom ignoring them. I cannot imagine ignoring the reach. When they reach for me, my natural response is to grab them and love on them and comfort them. I pray that they never get too big to reach for their daddy. The truth is that we should never stop reaching. We may not always be reaching for our parents, but we should always be reaching for Jesus. Paul said it this way in Philippians 3:13-14, “But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.” I thought about this from the perspective of a young child. Why do they reach for their parents? Sometimes it is to simply touch them. Sometimes it is to gain a better perspective – the baby will often come to me because I am taller and he can see more. Sometimes it is to be comforted. Sometimes it is simply because they miss their parents and want to be close. I am sure that there are plenty of other reasons, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that we should be reaching for Jesus for many of the same reasons. I think we tend to stop reaching, much like an older child does. We gain a spirit of independence. We do not want to be seen as weak or helpless. We might even get embarrassed if someone saw us reaching. Could it be that we are also too busy playing with our toys? I don’t think God is satisfied with a wave and an acknowledgement of His presence in the room from a child that is too busy. As a Father, I believe that God loves it when his children reach for him and when He is the object of their desire – the singular focus of their lives. Have you stopped reaching for your Father? You know, we can reach for Him more than when we simply need comfort or when we are afraid. It is perfectly appropriate to reach for our Father because we simply want to be near Him, to touch Him, to feel His presence. How do we do it? How do we reach for our Father? One word – focus. Paul talks about forgetting the past and concentrating on the goal. That’s focus. When a child is hurt and needs his mom or dad, he is focused, he reaches. When the storm rages outside and the baby is scared, he reaches out. Only one thing will bring comfort – mom or dad. That’s focus! Don’t lose your focus on your Father and stop reaching! A proud daddy – reaching for his Father! Pastor Brian Thursday, April 22. 2010Who Let the Dogs Out?Sermon - "Who Let the Dogs Out" - Philippians 3:1-9 Series - The Joy Letter #13 Listen by clicking the box or download the mp3 here. Sermon - "My Goal" - Philippians 3:10-11 Series - The Joy Letter #14 Listen by clicking the box or download the mp3 here. A little over nine years ago, Heather and I took a trip to the top of Sand Mountain, up in the northeast corner of Alabama. If you’ve never been to Sand Mountain, let’s just say that it is not a destination location! You don’t really go visit just for the sake of visiting. But we had a purpose. We were looking for a dog, for a beagle. We were about to start our life together and we both wanted a dog. When we found the breeder’s house, we got out of the car, and before we knew it, we were surrounded by 8 or 9 beagle puppies. If you’re a dog guy like me, there’s nothing quite like being surrounded by a bunch of roly-poly puppies. The hardest thing about that trip to Sand Mountain was trying to pick just one pup, but pick one we did, and Gator has been a faithful member of our home ever since. He’s changed a bit in the last 9 years. He’s fat. His face has started to turn gray. He has really bad breath, and he has become the loudest snorer in our house. But he’s still faithful, barking when the doorbell rings, cleaning the floor from any crumbs that get dropped, and sitting at the top of the stairs waiting for us when he hears the garage door open. He’s not one to strike fear into the heart of an intruder, and he definitely is not one to warrant a “Beware of the Dog” sign. But not all dogs are overgrown lap dogs. Not all are quite so charming. Some are downright nasty. The first time I went to Jamaica, I spent a month in the capital city of Kingston. In that big city, dogs are anything but pets. Millions of stray dogs roam the streets, looking mangy and emaciated, rummaging through trash and looking for any opportunity to steal food left unattended. And though they mostly avoid contact with people, you get the sense that if provoked, they would attack. It was common to see dogs fighting with one another over the tiniest scrap of food. The Jamaicans would throw rocks at the dogs if they got too close. These canines were bad news and nobody wanted anything to do with them. In Philippians 3, Paul warns the church to “beware of the dogs.” When he does so, he is not referring to the house dogs or the hunting dogs or the herding dogs, all bred with a special function and form. He is referring to the strays, the mutts, the thieves that would come where they were not welcome and take what did not belong to them. In all actuality, he was not referring to dogs at all, but was making a striking comparison between vicious stray dogs and the false preachers that made a mockery of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. They were men who prided themselves on adding to the gospel. They were just like dogs, sneaking in where they were not wanted and stealing that which did not belong to them. They preached a gospel of works, not a gospel of grace. In Paul’s mind, they were no better than stray dogs looking to steal – and if necessary, kill. We have just as many dogs running around today, people adding to the gospel of Christ. They add layers of legalism and religion, demanding that true Christians submit to their narrow-minded “dogma” or else. The scriptures remind us that salvation is gained by faith in Jesus Christ, not through any religiously motivated act or deed. It is not attained by Jesus + some activity; it is attained by Christ alone. Anyone who would tell you differently is no better than a mangy, stray dog stealing food from a child’s mouth. We put “Beware of the Dogs” signs up for a reason, to protect others from harm. Paul has given us one of those signs today. We would do well to pay attention! Beware of the Dogs! Pastor Brian Thursday, April 15. 2010At a GlanceThe Great State of OxymoronSermon - "Joy in the Shadow of Sorrow" - Philippians 2:19-30 Series - The Joy Letter #12 Listen by clicking the box or download the mp3 here. Life is full of little bugging questions. Did you even wonder why the word phonetically is not spelled like it sounds? Did you ever wonder how they make Teflon stick to the pan when nothing sticks to Teflon? Or why in the world would they put braille on the keypad of a drive-up ATM? Why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway? Why do we ship items on a ship and call them cargo, and ship items on the road and call them a shipment? My favorite one was found on the list of side effects for a particular drug, “may cause constipation or diarrhea.” How’s that even possible? Life is full of contradictions and conundrums. We tell people to “act naturally” or we refer to a “deafening silence.” We even throw our garbage in a place called a “sanitary landfill.” I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been asked to sign the “original copy.” We don’t give much thought to these phrases because they are an accepted part of our language and culture. But those who do not speak our language must surely be confused by the art of oxymoron. It is especially funny to watch children as they learn to use figures of speech and colloquialisms. You never really know what you’re going to get. As Christians, we exist in a state of oxymoron. James reminds us to “consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds.” In Acts 5, after being tortured in such a way that makes waterboarding look like a splash in a kiddie pool, Peter and John walk away rejoicing that they “had been counted worthy of suffering reproach for the name of Christ.” Jesus tells us that the “first shall be last and the last shall be first.” He also says that whoever wishes to save their life must first lose their life! The beautiful thing about this is that these are not contradictory statements, rather they are the result of walking with Jesus and living a cross-centered life. It only makes sense to those who are walking that pathway. Paul gives us yet another example of this cross-centered life in Philippians 2:19-30. He first commends Timothy and Epaphroditus to the Philippians as men worth following. They were godly men who exemplified the cross-centered life. In fact, while completing his mission, Epaphroditus nearly died from some unknown illness. As Paul retold this story, he said that if Epaphroditus had died, he would have had “one grief on top of another.” Each of us certainly understands this emotion. We would all grieve the death of a friend. It would only be compounded by being in prison at the time. Therein lies the glory of this whole notion. Remember the big idea behind Paul’s letter to the Philippians, to rejoice. Only the Christian understands what it means to rejoice in the shadow of grief. Paul tells the Thessalonians to beware of grieving as those who have no hope. True joy is not the emotion of sugar-coating. It doesn’t alleviate pain or grief or sorrow; it coexists with those painful emotions. It never minimizes their reality, it only tempers their sting. It is for this reason that Paul can know the great sorrow of being in jail, of helplessly watching a good friend suffer and face death, and face the unending difficulty of hearing the needs and problems faced by all of his churches, and still remind us to “rejoice, again I say rejoice.” Whatever you are facing today, no matter how big or how dark it may be, know that by God’s good grace, joy can always be found in the shadow of your crisis or your grief. The psalmist said it well in Psalm 30:5, “…weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” Again I say rejoice! Pastor Brian Thursday, April 8. 2010Fear & TremblingSermon - "When Nobody's Watching" - Philippians 2:12-18 Series - The Joy Letter #10 Listen by clicking the box or download the mp3 here. Sermon - "Who are the People of God" - Philippians 2:12-18 Series - The Joy Letter #11 Listen by clicking the box or download the mp3 here. One of the more challenging lessons of childhood (and adulthood for that matter) is learning when to be serious. My family saw this this past week while spending spring break at Disney World. One of the neatest attractions at Disney is the Hall of Presidents. While the audience is gathering, they basically tell you to be on your best behavior. No flash photography, no food or drink, etc. all in an attempt to “maintain the dignity of the office of president.” The culmination of the show introduces the audience to animatronic recreations of each of the former US Presidents. The show ends with the sitting president giving a brief speech. The baby was very well behaved throughout most of the 22-minute presentation, drifting between playing with his grandparents and watching the film. He was even intrigued by the introduction of the presidents. But as the replica of President Obama began to speak, the baby, as clear as a bell, cried out, “Blah, blah, blah…!” Now, if you’ve been around me any length of time, you know that I would tend to agree with the baby’s sentiment, BUT, I wouldn’t have expressed it quite so vocally in a room full of 300 strangers. He’s got a long way to go in learning about when to be serious! Paul reminds us in Philippians 2 about a need for being serious. He told the Philippians, to “…work out their salvation with fear and trembling.” Now, we know that Paul, of all people, is not encouraging a works based gospel. Paul understands that salvation is not something that we can work for. Nor is he encouraging us to respond to God in a timid, fearful sort of way. What he is trying to do is remind us of the seriousness of our walk with God. It isn’t that God does not want us to have fun along the way. I’m certain that Jesus and his disciple had a good time as they wandered around Palestine. They were a bunch of blue collar guys hanging out together all the time. You’ll never convince me that they all walked around Palestine with glowing halos, never laughing, telling jokes, or even having the occasional “odoriferous emanation.” Jesus was not some Commander Spock figure, always trying to figure us out. But they were serious too. They were dealing with Satan and his demons. They were seeing sickness and disease. They were dealing with the darkest side of the human condition. We can have great fun while walking with Jesus, but we never need to forget about the need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We need to take this thing seriously, because a lot is at stake. Paul says that our goal should be to be blameless and pure in a corrupt generation. Today, we live in a generation that is as corrupt as ever. The only way to be blameless and pure is, by God’s grace, to take this journey seriously, with great fear and trembling. I can remember a time not too far away that I didn’t take the journey very seriously. I thought I was having fun, but I was doing so at the expense of my credibility. I was not living a blameless and pure life. And the result was obvious – I looked more like the corrupt generation that I was supposed to be set apart from. All of us have experiences like that. Let us never revisit them. Let’s have a grand time together, but let us do so with the attitude of Christ Jesus. As much as we are tempted to, now is definitely not the time to yell out, “Blah, blah, blah” as it pertains to our walk with Jesus. Let’s get serious! With Fear and Trembling, Pastor Brian
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