Stewardship of our Heart and Mind Sermon on Philippians 4: Richard Hickam

Transcription

1 Stewardship of our Heart and Mind Sermon on Philippians 4: Richard Hickam Thank you musicians for preparing our hearts for worship, I now understand why the setup is so important for a pastor. I want to stress one other thing about the music ministry, these musicians are standing on a platform, not a stage. A stage is where you perform, but a platform is where you deliver a message, and the message of the saving grace of Jesus Christ was clearly presented, thank you. Thank you for this invitation Andy, the last time I spoke was April 20, That was 147 Sabbaths ago or 1,029 days, but who is counting right?... Thank Andy. These few verses in Philippians 4 could be the greatest Valentine s gift you could give to God, to your family, and to yourself. These gifts of stewardship can renew and restore precious relationships.they have been life changing for myself and my family. There are several key ideas that will change your life if you will prayerfully let God take control, practice them, and and continually meditate on them. This could sound like a self help lecture at times, but the clear difference is that everything is predicated on having accepted Jesus Christ in your life and allowing the Holy Spirit to do his work. But first, let s review a few details about how we got here and how more importantly how Paul got here: When Paul wrote this, he was sitting in prison, thinking he is going to die. As he writes letters to the young churches, he remembers the powerful works of God for Philippi. Paul is on his first missionary journey (Acts 16) when he receives a vision at night to travel to Macedonia (the modern day country of?). Remeber, God blocked his path to several places because he wanted to gospel taken to Europe. It is here that our students from VBS last summer will remember the story of the Paul and Silas singing hymns and praying, the earthquake, and the jailor and his family that were saved. These same people are now some of the leaders in the church there, he thinks fondly of them as he is writing this letter. Each one of these verses are so pregnant with content, let s take a couple of minutes to break them down: 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

2 This is that children s song remember? I was playing for the children s chapel this week and I noticed how many of the songs that we were singing included this theme, we sang: I ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart and I ve got peace like a river, I ve got joy like a fountain.. The children sang these songs with passion. The message version says to Celebrate God all day, every day. This is what worship leaders call a lifestyle of worship, it s so much more than showing up for an hour on the weekend. The Psalm 98:4 6 says, Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram s horn shout for joy before the Lord, the King. I also like the way the Message version says it: Shout your praises to God, everybody! Let loose and sing! Strike up the band! Round up an orchestra to play for God, Add on a hundred voice choir. Feature trumpets and big trombones, Fill the air with praises to King God. It was meditating on this that Isaac Watts wrote that most jubilant Christmas tune, Joy to the World. The actual hymn of joy was penned by Henry Van Dyke in 1907, it s interesting to note what he said about this hymn that is quite relative to today These verses are simple expressions of common Christian feelings and desires in this present time hymns of today that may be sung together by people who know the thought of the age, and are not afraid that any truth of science will destroy religion, or any revolution on earth overthrow the kingdom of heaven. Therefore this is a hymn of trust and joy and hope. And of course these are the words that he penned to put to that most glorious tune of Beethoven, Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love; hearts unfold like flow'rs before Thee, Opening to the Sun above, Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away;

3 Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day! Let s look again at what the verse says, Rejoice in the Lord, we rejoice in God for who he is and what he has done. We rejoice in him because we witness his creation all around us. We rejoice in him because death is defeated. We rejoice in him because this entire life is just a test run to spending eternity with him. We can t always rejoice in our circumstances, but we can always rejoice in the Lord. We have the opportunity for unspeakable joy in Christ. It is available to us and yet we often choose so much less. C.S. Lewis knew about about these tendencies when he wrote, We are half hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. There is also an strange oxymoron that lives in some people, you may know one, it is the joyless Christian. John Piper, in his book Desiring God reminds us of a cautionary tale that happened to the Israelites. Listen to these words from the LORD in Deuteronomy 28:47 48 Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. That is a somber thought, so we must figure out how to live out this command to rejoice. Philippians is called the book of Joy. I looked through these 4 chapters, Paul references Joy nine different times. We are called to be joyful Christians, but how do we do it? We must start everyday with gratitude and practice being joyful. It also reminds me of the first question from the Westminster Shorter Catechism (The Church of England and Church of Scotland were trying to bring uniformity together a series of questions for believers and this was the most important one of those) What is the chief end of man? Man s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. Worship joy, enjoy, rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. There was a film that recently talked about some of these emotions involved, let s take a quick look: SHOW INSIDE OUT CLIP. Look at that child, the sad thing is that a number of adults don t really grow out of that. We are now living in a time where it s acceptable to behave in a fit of anger when things don t go your way.

4 Let s say this together let your gentleness be evident to all. Really? Everyone? That jerk on I 4 that just cut me off? That obnoxious person I don t like at work? The kid that was mean to my child? The person who cut in line at the grocery store? Let me ask you a couple of questions further: 1. Do you have a peaceful home? 2. When someone corrects you harshly, how do you feel? 3. Can you think of ways that children boss each other around? 4. Can you think of someone who is gentle? 5. How do most people act when other people are gentle and kind to them? This verse was especially distressing to me as I realized that I hadn t been gentle with my wife or my children. I was stressed, working and going to school, trying to get everyone to school on time, raising my voice, being short, and I realized that God was letting me know that it was time for me to submit this problem to his care, and let him make the change in me. This is the passage that hit me square in the eyes, when one of my professors was lecturing on this passage he stressed that this is something we have to practice. I m going to talk about how we do that in a few minutes. And then there is the second part of this The Lord is near, we can see this both of two ways: he is always near to us, we can always turn to him. Jesus is also coming again, we are people of the second advent, we believe in his imminent return. One of my professors, Dr. Robert Morgan said this about the application of this in our lives, Be calm in all of your conflict and kind in your conduct. Gentleness is the secret way of getting things done in life. It takes strength on the inside to be gentle on the outside. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Now, maybe you have the first two bases covered, you are a joyful Christian and you are gentle to all, but you re not a worrier, are you? Do not worry? Oh my...does that mean about finding a spouse, or my grades, my job, the political future? illness? and dare I say, the end of time?? Let s look a little further to find the answer to all three of

5 these dilemmas in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Imagine not being anxious about anything. Paul s advice is to turn our worries into prayers. Do you want to worry less, than pray more! Whenever you start to worry... stop and pray. But notice that this is a reaction to the situation, how can we be proactive? You see like anything else in life, it takes practice. When we practice gentleness in our lives some amazing things happen: our anxiety is reduced, we reflect Christ, it pleases God, things get done. Last year we went through all of the spiritual disciplines. Many of you are mature Christians who have a daily walk with Christ, however we can all use reminders and find new insight about how how to refine this journey with Christ. Some of you still haven t quite found the rhythm to a lifestyle of worship. I ve got something special for you. Now, let me get to the daily starter plan, the beginner version is the 15 minute plan. 5 minutes of reading the Bible 5 minutes of prayer 5 minutes of going over thinking through and praying over your daily schedule daily schedule? yes, remember yesterday is covered in the blood of Jesus and tomorrow may never come for each one of us, all we have are the few moments of toda y I believe in starting my day this way, to be armed in the spirit to face the day. I realize some of you may have family limitations that might prove quite challenging. For you it might need to be at lunch or later in the day. Let me show you a few of the technology applications that I use for daily worship. You don t have to use these, all you need is a Bible and your mind, but I ve found these tools to be extremely helpful. Demonstrate YouVersion Bible App (Have you people read Philippians? It took me 8 minutes), Echo Prayer App, RightNow media app 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

6 This confirms what Jesus said in John 14:27, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. True peace is not in the absence of conflict. We see conflict all around us, we saw it in the drama earlier. This peace comes from knowing that God is in ultimate control. And again, he does all the work, notice that his peace will guard our hearts and minds, if we let him. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things. Fix your thoughts on these things. If these thoughts were natural, Paul wouldn t have to emphasize it so drastically. We have a choice on much of what we put into our heads. In his book the 4:8 Principle, Tommy Newberry tells us that both productive thinking and destructive thinking are merely habits. He tells us that whatever you give your attention to will be elevated in your consciousness. When we look back at the earlier verses we see the necessity to dwell on what we are thankful for, what our joy is expressed in, and elevate our minds to the things that are worthy. Talk about how I implemented this in my life and home. Then Darlene shared with her co workers and now I am sharing this message with, who will you share this message with? There is another word for dwell, and the great thing is that this word encompasses reading Scripture, prayer, dwelling on higher thoughts, submitting our will to his, and to being a church without walls. and that word is abide. As we learn to continually abide in his presence, we begin to understand the true nature of worship. We see all of life through this lens of being joined with God. It is here that we are truly stewards with our heart and mind. Challenge at the end: have the congregation write down the prayer what is stealing your joy? what do you need to be gentle about in your life? what are you most worried about?

7 How do you practice rejoicing? How do you practice rejoicing? 2. How can we be gentle in our inevitable conflicts? 2. How can we be gentle in our inevitable conflicts? 3. What are you worried about? What does the Bible say to focus on? 3. What are you worried about? What does the Bible say to focus on? 4. How can you implement the 15-minute plan in your life? When and where? 4. How can you implement the 15-minute plan in your life? When and where? 5. What do you need to get rid of in your life to focus on things that are noble and praiseworthy? 5. What do you need to get rid of in your life to focus on things that are noble and praiseworthy? Service archives are available at Service archives are available at