A recent sermon that I heard has caused me to ponder something both during the sermon and now days later. My hope in sharing this with you is less that it will result in your asking yourself something but more that through you others will ask themselves something.
This sermon was based for the most part on that often overlooked book of Philippians where the sermon concentrated on the third chapter taking from it the apparent joy that Paul felt in the life he now lived of struggle.
The life that Paul lived before would have been considered by a Jew as a successful one. He was a student and zealous follower of the law but in looking back at that life Paul considered it all a waste, a loss. All the things he accomplished and all the life he lived before, Paul considered rubbish.
First let me say that due to the constraints of a sermon or even a blog format not all aspects of an issue can be presented. And quite often the giver of a sermon or the writer of a lesson must measure his words but in so doing the ones that most need to be convicted in their hearts are not awakened from their slumber. Whether that should be the case is a question for another day but let’s make these that follow ones for today.
I would like you to broach with boldness all those with whom you associate who are Christians these questions because I think it will serve to strengthen the message of the gospel and therefore glorify the Father.
After referencing this idea of the conflict that those who are being sanctified experience, ask these questions: Do you feel the struggle, the conflict and feel the joy to which Paul refers? Do you consider all the life you lived before becoming a Christian as rubbish?
My fear, brothers and sisters, is that you will be greeted for the most part with blank stares of non-comprehension. This is as if to say, “Why should I be in a struggle or struggling with what?” or “How can I feel joy from something that is causing me pain?”
Paul said in the previous chapter that we as Christians should shine as stars in a crooked and depraved generation. Just as this depravity existed then so does it now and just as then, these to whom Paul spoke were advised to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.
If those you ask for the most part were not aware of this and of the conflict they should be experiencing on the road of sanctification then I can only pray that your reminding them will eventually result in the conviction you desire.
Your church might be stacking up the numbers of new members or it might only occur once in a while, but please have in place within your church the fertile soil of mature Christian teachers and solid Biblical education not the curriculum that you must purchase. Spend your thousands on those who have yet to hear the good news, those who are risking all to deliver it and on those who are in need, first within your midst and then without.
For our part, as those more mature in the faith, we must be like Paul who himself in Philippians 3:12-17 acknowledges that in this struggle that is sanctification he had not obtained all that he should be or been made perfect. But let us be examples like Paul and strain toward that goal.
We serve as examples but so do all those who surround us. We should hate the life we lived before Christ and the life that we live now should not resemble that life. If we still look the same to the world we cannot effectively strengthen the gospel and bring glory to God.
Blessings,
Jed
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