Good News/Bad News Philippians 3:18-21

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1 MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 12, 2008 CHRISTIAN HOPE CHURCH OF CHRIST, PLYMOUTH, NORTH CAROLINA (A Revision of a Message I first preached April 4, 2004) by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister Read Scripture Text P R A Y E R I N T R O D U C T I O N Good News/Bad News Philippians 3:18-21 HUMOROUS ILLUSTRATION: A LAWYER went to visit a MURDER SUSPECT he was defending in PRISON. Sitting face to face on opposite sides of a SECURITY GLASS, the LAWYER told his client, I ve got some GOOD NEWS and some BAD NEWS. Which do you want to hear first? The Client said, I GUESS THE BAD NEWS. The Lawyer said, They found traces of your BLOOD at the CRIME SCENE and its an open and shut case. The Client said, WELL WHAT S THE GOOD NEWS? The Lawyer said, Well the GOOD NEWS is your BLOOD CHOLESTEROL LEVEL is under 200. ****************************** GEIKO COMMERCIAL One of my favorite commercials in recent years is the one where this BASEBALL PITCHER is getting pounded by the opposing team. THE MANAGER strolls out to the pitcher s mound and says, Bad news, son, I M GONNA HAVE TO TAKE YOU OUT OF THE GAME. And just as the pitcher is about to leave the mound, the manager says, But I ve got some good news. I just saved hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with GEIKO. Here in our scripture text, Paul gives us some GOOD NEWS and some BAD NEWS

2 First, let s look at. I. The Bad News VERSE 18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 1. Paul is telling the Philippian Christians news that is so BAD, so PAINFUL, so HEARTBREAKING it moved him to tears. And that bad news was.. Many live as enemies of the cross. 2. What Paul is saying is I know you have heard me say this many times before, but I need to say it again.. we are living in a world that is extremely HOSTILE toward everything you and I believe in and stand for. 3. There are TWO KINDS of ENEMIES OF THE CROSS. (A) First there are those who are BLATANTLY OPPOSED TO CHRIST and anything to do with Christianity. These enemies hate our Christian teaching and preaching that Jesus Christ is man s only hope of salvation. They hate our Christian values and our moral standards. They hate it that we teach the Bible is the only standard of absolute truth. They hate it that we speak out against godlessness and immorality.

3 One group that certainly comes to mind is the American Civil Liberties Union, more commonly known as the ACLU. If its immoral.if its perverted. if its evil..if its sinful..if its godless you can count on the ACLU to defend it. If its righteous, if its holy, if its decent and wholesome, you can count on the ACLU to attack it. THEY ARE BLATANT ENEMIES OF THE CROSS! Many enemies of the cross are producing the TV shows and movies we watch. Many enemies of the cross are publishing the newspapers and magazines we read. Many enemies of the cross are giving us the national and world news from a non-christian world view. Many enemies of the cross hold positions in our government many sit on judges benches..many practice law in our courtrooms many are educators in our colleges and universities. These Enemies of the Cross are pretty easy to recognize because they don t even try to hide their disdain for Christian teachings and values.

4 (B) The second kind of ENEMY OF THE CROSS are those who actually portray themselves to be ADVOCATES of Christianity, but whose false teachings contradict the scriptures. This type of Enemy of the Cross is even more dangerous because they are not nearly as easy to spot. They are smoothe-talking false teachers who sound very sincere and believable in what they say. But their silver-tongue only masks their lies and deception. I believe it was this kind of ENEMY OF THE CROSS that concerned Paul most. In virtually every place Paul preached, these slick talking false teachers would come in after he left and try to destroy the work of Christ with their false teachings. And these teachings sounded so deceptively close to the real thing people could easily be led astray. 4. Paul goes on to tell the Philippian Christians in verse 19 that all ENEMIES OF THE CROSS share four things in common. (A) First, Enemies of the Cross share a common DESTINY vs. 19 a Their destiny is destruction. All enemies of the cross have rejected the straight and narrow path that leads to eternal life and have chosen to take the wide road that leads to eternal destruction.

5 (B) Secondly, Enemies of the Cross share a common DESIRE vs. 19 b Their god is their stomach. Now what does Paul mean by that? He means all enemies of the cross live to satisfy their sensual cravings and desires. Enemies of the Cross *Crave POWER *Crave PRESTIGE *Crave POSSESSIONS *Crave POSITION *Crave PLEASURE Their god is their stomach they live to satisfy their fleshly, sinful cravings. (C) Thirdly, Enemies of the Cross share a common DEGENERACY vs. 19c Their glory is their shame We are living in a time when so many enemies of the cross seem to take PRIDE in their shameful, sinful behavior. -They GLORY in their HOMOSEXUALITY -They GLORY in their LESBIANISM -They GLORY in their DRUNKENESS -They GLORY in their DRUG ADDICTIONS -They GLORY in BREAKING THE LAW -They GLORY in their WARPED world views. The Enemies of the cross share a common DEGENERACY!

6 (D) And fourthly, Enemies of the Cross share a common DELUSION. vs. 19d Their mind is on earthly things. Enemies of the cross could care less about spiritual matters or eternal matters because their minds are blinded by the DELUSION that HEAVEN is right here on EARTH. Their philosophy of life is LIFE IS A PARTY so EAT, DRINK and BE MERRY for tomorrow you will DIE. 5. Brothers and sisters, the BAD NEWS is There are a lot more of THEM than there ARE of us. There are more ENEMIES OF THE CROSS than there are SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS. ********************************* Realizing how easy it would be for the Philippian Christians to succumb to feelings of discouragement and despair, Paul now tells them II. THE GOOD NEWS verses 20, Christians, no matter how bad things get in this world.. no matter how many enemies of the cross may oppose us, we must never lose sight of the wonderful HOPE we have in JESUS CHRIST. 2. Just as every enemy of the cross shares some things in common, so do all of us who are SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS.

7 (A) We Soldiers of the Cross share a common DESTINATION vs. 20 a But our citizenship is in HEAVEN. ILLUSTRATION: I don t know how many of you have ever heard missionary, C.Y. KIM, tell about his 2 ½ years of captivity in a NORTH KOREAN prison camp. For 2 ½ years Bro. Kim was kept inside of a 5 x 5 wooden box, totally isolated from his family in friends. To preserve his sanity, C.Y. would quote scripture and pray. And each day he would preach to a little spider that shared the box with him. And as GOD cared for his daily needs with the small food rations given to him by his captures..bro. Kim cared for the needs of that little spider by giving him the tiny crumbs left over from his food. In the dead of the North Korean winters, Bro. Kim said the snow would blow through the cracks in his wooden box. And the only way he could keep warm was to position himself into the ray of sunlight that would peak through those same cracks. But the TRUE WARMTH he felt was the WARMTH of GOD S LOVE reminding him his HOPE was outside that BOX Sometimes this old sinful world can seem like being trapped inside a box. But we must never forget OUR HOPE is outside this box. Our hope is beyond this life. Our citizenship is in heaven.

8 (B) We Soldiers of the Cross also share a common DESIRE vs. 20 b And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord, Jesus Christ. The greek term that is used for eagerly await has an interesting meaning.. It literally means to stretch the neck. ILLUSTRATION: Think back to a time when you were expecting LOVED ONES to come in from out of town or out of state. Chances are you probably looked out the front window or the front door a dozen times to see if they were coming down your drive way. You see, you were EAGERLY AWAITING their arrival. You were STRETCHING YOUR NECK in anticipation of their coming. Paul is reminding the Philippian Christians as well as all of us, not to get so distracted by all the things the enemies of the cross are doing that we lose our eager anticipation for the return of Christ. We Soldiers of the Cross share a common DESTINY. for our citizenship is in HEAVEN. And we share a common DESIRE for we eagerly await the return of Christ. And thirdly.

9 (C) We Soldiers of the Cross share a common DESTINY vs. 21 Who by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Remember that beautiful promise in I THESSALONIANS 4:13,14? Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep or to grieve like the rest of men, who have NO HOPE. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that GOD will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in HIM. Illustration: How many of you remember that TV Show back in the early 70 s, The Six Million Dollar Man? In that show, Lee Majors played the part of NASA astronaut, Steve Austin, who had been critically injured in a terrible accident. Every show started out like this. Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can REBUILD him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world s first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. BETTER.. STRONGER.FASTER. One day you and I are going to be BETTER.STRONGER and FASTER. In the resurrection we will be transformed from these lowly, broken, worn down bodies into brand new bodies patterned after the glorious resurrected body of Jesus Christ. Think of ALL the people you and I cross paths each week who have NO HOPE beyond this life.

10 Think of ALL the people you and I know who hear the same BAD NEWS we hear on TV each evening and READ the same BAD NEWS we read in the paper each day who have absolutely NOTHING BETTER TO LOOK FORWARD TO! Thank GOD you and I have a wonderful DESTINY ahead of us, that THOUGH WE DIE, THROUGH CHRIST WE WILL LIVE AGAIN! *************************** CONCLUSION Every single day we are bombarded with BAD NEWS. Bad news about our ECONOMY. Bad news about the WAR in IRAQ. Bad news about UNEMPLOYMENT. Bad news about CROOKED POLITICANS.Bad news about GREEDY WALL STREET investors and Bad news about those who are running for the HIGHEST OFFICE in our land. Amid all this BAD NEWS it is very easy to lose sight of the BIG PICTURE if we re not real careful. And that GOOD NEWS is.. No matter how bad things get..god IS STILL GOD..AND GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL!

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