Sermon Brief
Date Written: September 22, 2011
Date Preached: September 25, 2011
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: A Series from Philippians
Sermon Title: STAND!
Sermon Text: Philippians 4:1-4 [ESV]
Introduction:
In our country today, men are ridiculed, down played and made out to be the very bane of society. If you watch TV at all you have seen what the role of a man has become… he is either the bumbling husband or boyfriend that has no spine, and has no self confidence and cannot make up his mind…
OR he is the comic cutup with no center in his life, constantly searching for meaning… OR he is the selfish, self-centered, philandering womanizer that takes advantage whoever comes into his life. Rarely does TV ever portray the man for who God created him to be… a strong, compassionate leader who loves easy, works hard, and lives clean!
How many of you remember Ward Cleaver? Ward Cleaver was the clean cut father, who always had the right thing to say, was always on time for things and never ever made a mistake… let me tell you that person does NOT exist in this world! So ladies stop looking for that guy!
God created man to lead the family, but only through and with the completion of the woman… both are incomplete without the other. This does not mean that something is wrong with you if you are single, but God’s order of things is one man/one woman, this is His way.
God created the man to lead the family and when men are responsible and godly in the leadership role, God blesses… Now why am I saying this about men today? Well, I believe that within the church men have taken the back seat and have abdicated their God-given role… because of this women have stepped up into roles out of their comfort zone so that things would get done… men of the church have not been the men they need to be, and this has been true for several decades in our country!
When pastor Fred Luter arrived at Franklin Ave Baptist Church in New Orleans’ crime ridden 9th ward in the fall of 1986 there was a small contingent of members of about 50, and pastor Fred told me there were 5 men besides himself… the rest were women and children.
Bro Fred knew that if he was going to win his community for Christ that he would have to start with the men… without the men he would never gain headway into the neighborhood! So what did pastor Fred do? Well in 1986 the sports world was all excited about a fight that was coming up… Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas ‘the Hitman’ Hearns… anyone here remember those guys?
Pastor Fred ordered that fight and told the women of his congregation that he wanted them to invite their husbands, boyfriends, brothers, sons, uncles, nephews and neighbors to come to pastor Fred’s house for this fight. 35 men showed up that night… many with cigarettes and beer bottles and although Pastor Fred did not allow that into his house, he said he welcomed them all into the house and that after that night… 5 of those guys came to church and after that 5 more… and he began to evangelize and disciple them…
Today Franklin Avenue has 2 Sun morning services and averages over 2100 in each service… I tell you all this to relay to you a principle that has been proven over and over again… when MEN lead in the church, God blesses and the church will prosper! This is because this is the way God has designed things.
This ‘formula’ has proven true statistically over the past several decades… statistics tell us that if you reach the children of the house, that 18% of the families will start coming to church, and that’s not too bad. Better yet, if you reach the women of the house, 20% of the families will start coming to church, which is still not a bad thing…
However, here is the startling statistic that boggles my mind… when the man of the house is reached and won to Christ, a staggering 90% of those families begin regular church attendance and participation! 90% that is almost unbelievable… but it proves the concept that so goes the man, so goes the family… OR when we put it into the church perspective… so goes the man… so goes the church!
You show me a church filled with obedience, servant minded, godly men… and I will show you a church that is FIRST obedient to God’s calling, SECOND moving in the right direction and THIRD the blessing of God will be upon them! God blesses and honors obedience!
Men, the church is in the shape it is in for ONE major reason… we have not been what we have been called to be by God! It’s time we changed… it’s time we stood up… it’s time we ‘manned’ up and began to live as God has called us to live!
This coming Friday, September 30, 2011… there is a showing of the movie “Courageous” this movie speaks to the role of men in the family and in life in general. I have a clip from the movie that I want you to see this morning… so let me set this up for you…
This movie is about what men are called to become, it’s a movie about life and how we as MEN react the difficulties that come in life and how they live out our lives as a result of those difficulties…
It is also about how we can sometimes lose sight of what is most IMPORTANT in life, and the things/people we take for granted… and may lose at anytime… and what we must learn to FIGHT for, to keep! Please watch this clip with me now [show Courageous clip #2]
Now I am personally going to attend this movie and I am going to purchase a minimum of 10 extra tickets. I am going to invite men from our community to go with me… I am going to invite our first responders to go with me…
I believe that this movie is a great resource for us to reach the MEN of our community! God has provided this resource for us through the servanthood of Sherwood Baptist church in Albany, GA… let’s NOT take this resource for granted… let us USE this resource to reach out to a community that needs Christ!
Today in the passage we are going to look at we find Paul exhorting the believers in Philippi…and although he is speaking to ALL of the people, this exhortation from Paul is one that we can take and apply to the men of our church… God has revealed through His word that the men of our church need to:
Stand Firm
Stand United, and
Stand Joyfully
When the men of our church STAND in such a way for Christ… Christ is going to honor that obedience… Christ is going to honor our church, and I believe we will begin to see our community touched and people saved! Let’s go to our scripture for this morning… [read Phil 4:1-4 (ESV) here]
Stand Firm – v.1
[read v.1 again… here…show verse on screen]
Now when I look at verse the first thing that jumps out at me is the very first word… Paul starts v.1 off with the word, “THEREFORE”… and one of the things I learned in Seminary about Bible study, and this is one thing I believe we ALL need to learn… is that when we see this word “THEREFORE” we have to ask ourselves the question, what is it THERE FOR?
Well when we look at the context of the letter from Paul to the church in Philippi we can see that earlier in the letter Paul had warned the Philippian believers of the dangers of distraction from their walk in Christ… in no particular order Paul warned of the:
The distraction of false teaching
The distraction of empty ceremony/ritual without meaning
The distraction of position/power in life
The distraction of privilege and rank in life
The distraction of successes and accomplishment
The distraction of failure and disappointment
Paul warned the believers of these distractions and I believe these are the SAME things that distract MEN today in our society. Men we have allowed things like our job/career, success, material things, position in community or some other thing to distract us from being the spiritual leader within our home. We cannot allow the distractions of this world to sidetrack our walk in Christ OR our leadership within our family!
After Paul warned of all the distractions, we also see Paul giving some really great encouragements to these believers as well…
He encouraged them to seek to know God and His power
He encouraged them to press on! Focusing on Christ!
He encouraged them that HE too is with them and is pressing on as well
He encouraged them to conform to Christ, in His power and sufferings
He encouraged them to lay aside their past accomplishments AND failures and to focus FORWARD in their walk in Christ
He encouraged them to be of the same mind and unified with each other…
He encouraged them that this world and all its problems is NOT our home but that we are citizens of heaven
He encouraged them to pray for those who sought to serve Christ for their own personal gain with an implication NOT to condemn but pray for them
He encouraged them that ONE glorious day… that ALL in Christ would be transformed from this earthly body to be like Christa and His resurrected body… that today we seek to be like Him but one day we will be like Him!
Paul encouraged the believers… and those encouragements ring true for men today as well… Men this world and all its distractions and trappings is NOT our home… we are servants of the most High who will call us home one day and we are called to live holy and godly lives so that when we are called home, God will say to us, “Well done! Good and faithful servant!”
And after ALL his warnings of distractions… after ALL his encouragements to the faithful, Paul completes his thought with chapter 4 and begins that thought with the word… THEREFORE… In other words, because of what he had warned them to avoid, and because of what he had encouraged them about… THEREFORE they are called to STAND FIRM in their faith and walk in Christ!
Men we are called to STAND FIRM! And Paul’s statement here for us to STAND FIRM is one given out of a deep and abiding love for the fellowship in Philippi. He gives it in a loving and brotherly manner… Paul actually expresses this call to STAND FIRM with a deep affection for those in the fellowship! Look what Paul says in v.1:
“My Joy!” Paul says… it is the Greek word [Kahr-rah] which means that Paul sees this fellowship [thru their faithful obedience and service to God] that they were the reason for his joy… Christ present IN THEM gave Paul joy!
“My crown!” Paul says… it is the Greek word [steph-an-noss] which means THEY were the good fruit of Paul’s labor of love for Christ! Giving him JOY here in this world and laying up treasures in the next world…
With all the love in his heart Paul once again encourages these believers to stand firm! And this morning I call on all the men of our church to STAND FIRM! Stand firm thru all of life’s distractions… Stand firm because of the encouragements of Scripture… but mostly I call on you to STAND FIRM in the Lord, placing all of your focus on Him! Men are you ready to STAND FIRM?
Paul called them to STAND FIRM, but we can also see were Paul called them to also STAND UNITED! Let’s look at v.2-3 [re-read v.2-3 here]
Stand United – v.2-3
Now when we break down verses 2-3 we find many words that jump out at us and we take notice of them… the first word I want us to look at this morning from these verses is the word ‘entreat’… some translations have this as ‘implore’…
The Greek word that Paul uses here is [Para-kah-leh-oh] which is a word that carries several meanings. In keeping with the context of what Paul is saying we can be certain what Paul was saying here was he was taking these particular women to task… FIRST in admonition to call for their unity! But second I believe Paul’s ultimate desire was reconciliation and encouragement to these women!
In his admonishment, Paul tells these women to ‘be of the same mind’ which implies that currently they were NOT of the same mind… or that they were at odds with one another. The Bible is not clear on the disagreement but it simply implies that there was an issue there… but the issue was large enough that news had traveled several hundred miles and had been given to Paul in Rome… so this was important to Paul.
Men… we are called to ‘be of the same mind’ in our service to God. There is NO room in the church for lone ranger/maverick believers who venture out alone and on their own… we are called to be a community of faith and unified in our faith in Christ! Paul calls these women to unity just as God is calling our men to be unified within the framework of serving God within the church!
Paul did caution these believers to be about the same mind… but he also encouraged them as well. Paul said, “…these women who labored with me in the gospel…” Paul’s correction is quickly tempered by his adoration for their faithfulness in the past… and how that faithfulness is moving forward. Paul is saying to faithfully serve Christ that you must learn to love working for the Lord and you must learn to reconcile your differences…
In breaking down these verses, we can see in verse 3 that Paul is ‘entreating’ or ‘urging’ these women to reconcile. The Greek word he uses here is [Err-ah-tah-oh] can be a simple request OR a desperate plea… the context here is more than a simple request and this is why the word ‘urge’ or ‘entreat’ is used rather than the simple word… ASK… We know that Paul is very concerned over this situation and he is entreating the help of a friend he trusts a great deal…
Scripture does not reveal the name of this person but refers to him as a ‘companion’ [Greek word – soodz-uu-gay] This is a fellow worker… someone in whom Paul placed a great deal of trust because they had worked together on many occasions. But Paul adds a word of description to this person… [Greek word – G’nay-see-oss] which means this person was a genuine and truly sincere believer! A fellow worker in all sense of the word!
Paul urges this friend in v.3 to ‘help’ these women to reconcile their differences so that the church could be a firm and loving witness for Christ! With dissention in the church…how could they be a witness for Christ?
The word Paul uses for ‘help’ is the Greek word that means to seize or arrest… it is a very STRONG word! What Paul is saying here is that he wants this situation taken care of… and he is calling on his fellow servant to do just that!
Paul completes his thought here with a word of encouragement to these women… since they had worked side by side with him in the ministry Paul implies that they can work side by side TOGETHER as well… it is an encouragement to Paul for them to return to the unity that they had known before…
I want us to take notice that Paul’s encouragement is that ALL the fellow workers, including these women… all of their names were in the Book of Life… this reveals to us that even when we fail God and fall and sin.. .God does not abandon us NOR does He kick us out… we are secure in our salvation and place in His kingdom!
Men we must stand firm… and we must stand UNIFIED for the cause of Christ! We cannot allow the distractions of life NOR the pettiness of selfish motives to come between us and serving our Lord…
Paul’s admonition of the believers and encouragements to these women was as God has called men to today… Women are also called to stand united in the gospel… to stand united in their service.. and to stand United and NOT to allow any division to bring them down – but Paul continues from here…Paul calls them to stand… but stand JOYFULLY in their walk in Christ! Let’s look at v.4
Men you are called to stand firm in your faith, and you are also called to stand united with each other for the cause of Christ, but finally we can see Paul calling the believers in Philippi to…
Stand Joyfully – v.4
[read v.4 here… show slide now]
Here Paul says that these people are to REJOICE!
[Greek word – Kahr-ette-ay] which means to rejoice or to be joyful, but it also carries the meaning of being complete, well and whole or to thrive in life!
Here Paul uses the word ‘rejoice’ not simply for the physical act of rejoicing or the physical status of these believers… BUT… Paul uses it to point back to what he had said in chapters 1 & 2 where he had challenged them to walk their talk… to live their faith out loud in the world!
Men… God has called us to WALK OUR TALK… to LIVE OUT OUR FAITH… He has called us to Stand Firm, and Stand United… but we must understand that we are also called to STAND JOYFULLY! We are called to be well in our faith and to thrive in our faith… DAILY! Be well… Serve well… thrive in the place God has placed you… REJOICE in your service to Him!
However, we see Paul emphasizing this more and more by repeating this call to these believers… “…and AGAIN I say REJOICE!” It was as if he was saying to these believers…
Do you fully realized how blessed you are?
Do you fully understand your standing in Christ?
He wanted them to know that because of the blessings of Christ and His sacrifice… and the mercy, grace and forgiveness of God… we have reason to REJOICE!
He was saying that because of the promise of God for our salvation and the eternal life He is going to give all who trust in Him… REJOICE!! We must NEVER take these things for granted… we must learn to STAND JOYFULLY in our walk with Christ!
Conclusion:
Sometimes I believe we lose sight of our calling and standing in Christ… we take for granted the great and wonderful blessing we have in being a saved child of God! When we do that, it is so easy for us to slip into pettiness and a self-centered attitude… these things lead to division and distraction from our walk in Christ…
Here Paul is calling us to REJOICE in our Lord and His mercy, grace, and love! Paul calls us to REJOICE because the ACT of rejoicing requires a focus on what we are rejoicing about… it requires our focus ON GOD! If we are Standing FIRM in our faith…
if we are Standing UNITED in our faith, and if we are Standing JOYFULLY in our faith… our focus is going to be solidly on the One who has saved us… the One who sustains us… and the One who will lead, guide and direct our steps as we serve Him! When we do that… he is going to honor our focus and obedience… and we are going to see a great move of God in our community!
Stand Firm my brothers! Press on and don’t allow the distractions of this life to derail your walk and witness for Christ! The Christian life is hard, but it is extremely rewarding when we are obedient to the One who has called us… STAND FIRM!
Stand United my brothers! Don’t allow petty differences or silly disturbances to divide and separate you from each other! We belong together and Christ longs to see us become unified under the cause of His kingdom! Unity in our walk is our strength and with unity we can do so much more than we can on our own… STAND FIRM…STAND UNITED…
Stand Joyfully my brothers! As I have stated the Christian life can be so very hard and it requires a great deal of resolve and focused effort on our part… this sometimes can take its toll on believers! The difficulty of the Christian walk can cause our humanity to flare up and damage our relationship with Christ and with others… BUT… Paul calls us to a life of REJOICING!
Rejoice in the Christ who loves you! Rejoice in the Christ who lived and died FOR you! Rejoice in the Christ who conquered death and the grave FOR you! Rejoice! Sin is conquered, death is defeated, forgiveness is offered, salvation is received, and eternal life in heaven is a reality… REJOICE! And again I say REJOICE!!!
Men let’s PRAISE the God we serve by living as the men He has created us to be… Live out our lives standing firm in our faith, standing united in our cause and standing joyfully in our walk with Christ! REJOICE my brothers… and again I say REJOICE!
Give invitation for those who are not saved… call men of church to repent and make commitment to God today to serve as God has created them to serve!
