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While-Laughing-Keep-Your-Balance · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: There are a lot of things that are tough in life,
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Speaker 1: but the thought of trying to live up to someone
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Speaker 1: else's impeccable example is overwhelming, to say the least. And
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Speaker 1: we've all learned that our lives will be one frustration
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Speaker 1: after another if we try to follow Christ's example through
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Speaker 1: the hypocrisy of faking it, or the immaturity of hurrying it,
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Speaker 1: or worse, the legalism of striving for it. We need balance,
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Speaker 1: don't we. We need the balance that can only come
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Speaker 1: through Christ's power, which enables us, working within us, to
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Speaker 1: accomplish the impossible. We're going to read about that today,
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Speaker 1: and we're going to learn about it in our time together.
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Speaker 1: Turn with me to the Letter to the Philippians once again,
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Speaker 1: chapter two, where we will learn how to lean on
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Speaker 1: Christ alone, and in doing so discover that very truth.
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Speaker 1: By following him, he will bring a joyful, satisfying balance
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Speaker 1: to our lives when we do that. So, got your
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Speaker 1: bible open. Here we are in the New Testament Book
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Speaker 1: of Philippians, chapter two. I'll begin reading at verse twelve,
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Speaker 1: and I'll read down to verse eighteen. Philippians two twelve. So, then,
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Speaker 1: my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as
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Speaker 1: in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.
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Speaker 1: Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it
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Speaker 1: is God who is at work in you, both to
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Speaker 1: will and to work for His good pleasure. Do all
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Speaker 1: things without grumbling or disputing, so that you will prove
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Speaker 1: yourselves to be blameless and innocent. Children of God. Above,
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Speaker 1: reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,
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Speaker 1: among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding
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Speaker 1: fast the word of life. So that in the day
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Speaker 1: of Christ, I will have reason to glory because I
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Speaker 1: did not run in vain, nor toil in vain. But
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Speaker 1: even if I am being poured out as a drink
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Speaker 1: offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I
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Speaker 1: rejoice and share my joy with you. All you two,
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Speaker 1: I urge you rejoice in the same way and share
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Speaker 1: your joy with me. Examples are wonderful things. People who
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Speaker 1: have gone before us and have lived lives that are
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Speaker 1: admirable and exemplary are so valuable to all of us.
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Speaker 1: We who are students of biographies, have in our libraries
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Speaker 1: a number of books about great men and great women
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Speaker 1: who have lived. These exemplary lives and have set the
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Speaker 1: stage or set the pace for us to do the
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Speaker 1: same sometime. However, their lives are so significant we feel
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Speaker 1: frustrated rather than motivated when we read of them. I'm
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Speaker 1: thinking of an article I read several years ago entitled
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Speaker 1: Advice to a bored young Man. I want you to
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Speaker 1: hear what this writer has to say. Died aged twenty
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Speaker 1: buried age sixty The sad epitaph of too many Americans.
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Speaker 1: Mummification sets in on too many young men at an
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Speaker 1: age when they should be ripping the world wide open.
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Speaker 1: For example, many people reading this page or doing so
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Speaker 1: with the aid of bifocals. Inventor Ben Franklin, age seventy nine.
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Speaker 1: The presses that printed this page were powered by electricity.
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Speaker 1: One of the first harnessers, Ben Franklin, age forty Some
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Speaker 1: of you are reading this on the campus of one
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Speaker 1: of the Ivy League Universities. Founder Ben Franklin, age forty five.
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Speaker 1: Others are in a library. Who founded the first library
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Speaker 1: in America, Ben Franklin, age twenty five. Some got their
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Speaker 1: copy through the US mail Its father Ben Franklin, age
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Speaker 1: thirty one. Now think fire, who started the first fire? Department,
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Speaker 1: Who invented the lightning rod, who designed and the heating
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Speaker 1: stove still in use today. Ben Franklin ages thirty one
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Speaker 1: forty three thirty six wit conversationalist, economist, philosopher, diplomat, printer, publisher, linguist,
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Speaker 1: spoke and wrote five languages, advocate of paratroopers from balloons,
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Speaker 1: a century before the airplane was invented. All this until
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Speaker 1: age eighty four, and Ben Franklin had exactly two years
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Speaker 1: of formal schooling. It's a good bet that you already
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Speaker 1: have more sheer knowledge than Franklin ever had when he
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Speaker 1: was your age. Perhaps you think there's no use trying
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Speaker 1: to think of anything new, that everything's been done wrong.
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Speaker 1: The simple agrarian America of Franklin day didn't begin to
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Speaker 1: need the answers we need today. Go do something about it. Well,
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Speaker 1: I'm trying to hear those words through the years of
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Speaker 1: a mother of three or four small children who does
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Speaker 1: well to get dressed by eleven o'clock in the morning,
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Speaker 1: or the busy husband and father of three or four
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Speaker 1: who does well to keep his sanity, working six sometimes
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Speaker 1: seven days a week just to put bread on the table.
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Speaker 1: I'm trying to read a schedule into those words, like
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Speaker 1: most of us live with with hardly enough time to
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Speaker 1: even read about inventions, to say nothing of discovering them.
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Speaker 1: Kind of makes me agree with Mark Twain who once
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Speaker 1: said few things are harder to put up with than
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Speaker 1: the annoyance of a good example. And so what do
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Speaker 1: we do surrounded by these great examples, these exemplary people,
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Speaker 1: how do we pull it off? Well, we have techniques nowadays.
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Speaker 1: One is called faking it. And I'm thinking of the
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Speaker 1: music industry right now. If you don't read in that area,
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Speaker 1: you don't know about the scandal that's revolved around Milli Vanilli,
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Speaker 1: who won the Grammy Award for the album Girl. You
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Speaker 1: know it's true. The problem is it wasn't and they
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Speaker 1: lip sync the entire musical piece, which resulted in the
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Speaker 1: disgrace of having to give the award back, to which
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Speaker 1: the president of Capitol Records Nashville, named Jimmy Bowen replied,
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Speaker 1: you have to remember that music is a mirror of
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Speaker 1: the times, and when the mirror is close to what's happening,
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Speaker 1: that's what sells. The times we live in are very plastic.
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Speaker 1: There are a lot of phony things happening in people's
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Speaker 1: daily lives. So Millivanilli just is just playing the game,
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Speaker 1: which says something about the times we live in and
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Speaker 1: another in the same article rights. As technology allows music
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Speaker 1: producers to use increasingly sophisticated electronic trickery to make albums
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Speaker 1: and videos, the Milli Vanilli scandal will only repeat itself
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Speaker 1: unless audiences stop valuing image more than content. Well, we
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Speaker 1: can fake it. We get that great example, we hear
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Speaker 1: those great voices, and we see those great images, and
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Speaker 1: we can fake a recording like we can fake a life.
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Speaker 1: Another common technique when facing a great example is hurry
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Speaker 1: it up. I find more and more in this generation,
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Speaker 1: want more and more earlier and earlier. Don't slow me
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Speaker 1: down by making me pay a price or go through
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Speaker 1: the pain of process. Don't make me wait. I want
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Speaker 1: it now. I want it now. Let me just hit
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Speaker 1: the high spots, and ultimately I can look like you look,
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Speaker 1: or sound like you sound, or in some cases have
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Speaker 1: a ministry like you have. I just want it quicker.
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Speaker 1: I don't want to be in my fifties and sixties
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Speaker 1: or seventies. I want it in my twenties. Whether you
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Speaker 1: like him or not, you have to agree that the
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Speaker 1: late pianist Liberachi was one of the most popular pianists
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Speaker 1: of the latter half of the twentieth century. I was
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Speaker 1: interested in reading his self confessed style. Recently, I quote,
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Speaker 1: my whole trick is to keep the tune well out
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Speaker 1: in front. If I played Tchaikovski, I play his melodies
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Speaker 1: and skip his struggles. Naturally, I condense. I have to
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Speaker 1: know just how many notes my audience will stand for.
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Speaker 1: If there's time left over, I fill in with a
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Speaker 1: lot of runs up and down the keyboard. It looks
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Speaker 1: like it seems like Tchaikovsky, but we don't get too
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Speaker 1: heavy with it, just to add a few runs. And
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Speaker 1: the most common method used in Christian circles when we
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Speaker 1: got an example that's laid before us and we can't
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Speaker 1: live up to it, is to strive for it, work harder.
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Speaker 1: The familiar song living for Jesus, a life that is
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Speaker 1: true also says striving to please Him. All that I
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Speaker 1: do is that the Christian life, if it isn't faking it,
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Speaker 1: and if it isn't hurrying it, is that it. You
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Speaker 1: want to live the rest of your life striving to
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Speaker 1: please Him, and all that you do, some of you
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Speaker 1: say I'm doing my best. I'm trying. I'm exhausted. What
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Speaker 1: is true of all other examples is not true of Jesus.
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Speaker 1: I listen to this. All other great examples, whether they
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Speaker 1: be some president or statesman, a woman, whether they be
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Speaker 1: some inventor or novelist or athlete, whatever. All the other
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Speaker 1: examples may inspire, but they cannot enable. They may motivate us,
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Speaker 1: but they don't have any power to give us. There's
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Speaker 1: nothing of Ben Franklin left over to make me the
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Speaker 1: inventor he was. But when it comes to Christ, it's different.
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Speaker 1: He says, you want to live my life, here's my power.
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Speaker 1: You want to please my heavenly Father, here's the enablement.
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Speaker 1: I don't leave you as orphans. I give you my
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Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, and I live on through you by His power.
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Speaker 1: I find that very encouraging. Having failed far more than
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Speaker 1: I've succeeded at most of my dreams, and I think
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Speaker 1: you'd say the same thing. Having been plagued by sin
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Speaker 1: all my life and struggling to find my way to
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Speaker 1: the top of the water to breathe, I find great
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Speaker 1: hope that He gives me the ability to breathe, regardless
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Speaker 1: in Philippians chapter two. For example, I come across another example.
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Speaker 1: I am told to do nothing by selfishness or empty
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Speaker 1: conceit Philippians two three. We've looked at that, we've frowned
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Speaker 1: our way through it, knowing how selfish and conceited most
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Speaker 1: of us are at times. And we've also grown when
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Speaker 1: we read with humility of mind. Let each one regard
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Speaker 1: one another as more important than himself, And we've all
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Speaker 1: been selfish, maybe as early as this morning, you've already
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Speaker 1: evidenced selfishness. You wanted to be somewhere when you wanted
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Speaker 1: to get there, and you didn't want to wait for anybody.
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Speaker 1: In fact, look at the command verse five. Have this
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Speaker 1: attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. There's
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Speaker 1: no getting around it. He not only is the perfect example,
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Speaker 1: he is the example of perfection. Think of it without
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Speaker 1: a flaw, without one moment where he blew it, without
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Speaker 1: a wayward thought, without a disobedient act. He pulled it off.
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Speaker 1: And we're told to have the same attitude he had
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Speaker 1: when he emptied him, when he gave up the adoration
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Speaker 1: of angels and took upon himself the form of a
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Speaker 1: little baby. In Bethlehem and grew up to be a
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Speaker 1: man who was punched in the face and spit upon,
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Speaker 1: and had roman spikes driven into his palms and into
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Speaker 1: his ankles, and was left to die. Now you live
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Speaker 1: like that, I can't, and you can't eat. All the
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Speaker 1: striving in the world won't make me like him. I
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Speaker 1: need help, and I cry out for it in prayer
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Speaker 1: every day of my life. And the good news is
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Speaker 1: he gives it. In fact, he not only gives it,
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Speaker 1: he enables me to keep some things in balance that
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Speaker 1: I could not otherwise do. Move through this wonderful second
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Speaker 1: chapter to the center paragraph verses twelve through eighteen, and
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Speaker 1: you will find encouragement, I think, for there is here
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Speaker 1: not only instruction and command, there is hope that you
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Speaker 1: can make it happen through His strength. In fact, I
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Speaker 1: find three different areas to be kept in balance. Please
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Speaker 1: notice verses twelve and thirteen. Purpose balanced with power fourteen
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Speaker 1: through sixteen, Attitude balanced with actions seventeen and eighteen. There
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Speaker 1: is seriousness, balance with joy, and it can happen on
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Speaker 1: a regular basis through the enablement of Jesus Christ and
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Speaker 1: only through him, only through him. Now let's get into
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Speaker 1: the particulars. I think. Until we do, it's all just
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Speaker 1: generalized motivating talk. We need to see how it works out.
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Speaker 1: First of all, purpose and power. Let me read for
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Speaker 1: you these two verses twelve and thirteen. So, then, my beloved,
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Speaker 1: just as you have always obeyed, not as in my
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Speaker 1: presence only, but now much more in my absence, work
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Speaker 1: out your own salvation. Work out your salvation with fear
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Speaker 1: and trembling, For it is God who is at work
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Speaker 1: in you, both to will and to work for his
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Speaker 1: good pleasure. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, just a minute.
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Speaker 1: If I were sitting at the kitchen table with you,
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Speaker 1: and you and I were reading these two verses, one
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Speaker 1: of us would notice a conflict, probably both of us.
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Speaker 1: You and I are told to work out our salvation,
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Speaker 1: only to be told verse thirteen that it is God
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Speaker 1: at work in you. Make up your mind, which is it?
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Speaker 1: Who does it? That's a great question, that is, in
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Speaker 1: fact a question that has caused some people to come
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Speaker 1: up with a wrong answer because they've seen only one
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Speaker 1: and not both. To begin with, understand, this is not
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Speaker 1: a command directed to people to become saved. These people
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Speaker 1: are already saved. I'll show you one verse one of Philippians.
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Speaker 1: Paul and Timothy Bond, Servants of Christ Jesus, to all
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Speaker 1: the Saints in Christ. This is a letter written to
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Speaker 1: people already in Christ who are living in Philippi geographic
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Speaker 1: They're in Philippi positionally and spiritually there in Christ. You
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Speaker 1: and I are the same, regardless of the city we
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Speaker 1: may live in. Because we have placed our faith in
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Speaker 1: trust in Christ. We are set apart in Christ Jesus.
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Speaker 1: Look at verse twelve or verse six Chapter one. I
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Speaker 1: am confident of this very thing that he who began
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Speaker 1: a good work in you, that's salvation, will perfect it
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Speaker 1: until the day of Christ Jesus, that's sanctification. We are
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Speaker 1: born again because the good work has begun, and we
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Speaker 1: are being completed because the good work continues through the
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Speaker 1: blessing and power of Jesus Christ. And he even refers
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Speaker 1: to them as brethren chapter one, verse twelve, and beloved
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Speaker 1: chapter two, verse twelve. These are Christians. This section is
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Speaker 1: written to people who are already in the family, but
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Speaker 1: we are in need of working out our salvation. Please
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Speaker 1: observe it does not say work toward or work for.
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Speaker 1: He's saying work it out. Three illustrations come to mind,
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Speaker 1: one a musician to a person who is ill a patient,
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Speaker 1: and three an athlete. See if this doesn't make it clear.
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Speaker 1: A musician sits in a chair and has music placed
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Speaker 1: on a stand in front of him or her. The
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Speaker 1: music is composed by the genius who puts notes on
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Speaker 1: the page and mixes it with rhythm and with style,
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Speaker 1: and composes the sheet of music. But it's incomplete unless
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Speaker 1: it is played out by the musician by the soloist
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Speaker 1: who takes the music and interprets it with voice and style.
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Speaker 1: The composer doesn't have a complete work until the music
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Speaker 1: is sawn out or played out. You and I are
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Speaker 1: normally healthy. We go to a physician because we get
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Speaker 1: sick and the normal routine doesn't get us well. The physician,
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Speaker 1: through training, skill and gift, discovers by diagnosis that we
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Speaker 1: have a certain disease that must take medication for us
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Speaker 1: to get over. He writes out a prescription, and he
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Speaker 1: gives you the prescription. You take the prescription. You didn't
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Speaker 1: write it. You're given the prescription, but it's up to
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Speaker 1: you now how to go and have it filled by
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Speaker 1: the pharmacist and to carry out the instructions of the
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Speaker 1: prescription or you won't get better, and his work is
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Speaker 1: in vain. It takes both. No physician can heal, but
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Speaker 1: he can prescribe medicine that can be taken, and with
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Speaker 1: the proper dosage, in the proper period of time, health
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Speaker 1: can turn. The athlete is the third that comes to
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Speaker 1: my mind. It's a football game. You're the quarterback. You're
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Speaker 1: at the ten yard line. The score is tied, four
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Speaker 1: seconds left. Your kicker just broke his leg. Nobody can
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Speaker 1: kick it. You got to run a play. The coach
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Speaker 1: sends in the play. You didn't create the play. You
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Speaker 1: didn't design the play. You receive the play, and now
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Speaker 1: you and your team must work it out in order
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Speaker 1: to score. The coach is helpless without the team, and
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Speaker 1: the team needs the coach with all of his objectivity,
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Speaker 1: to make the thing work. You win the game because
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Speaker 1: you run the play successfully. That's what this passage is about.
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Speaker 1: You have been given salivation, just as the musician is
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Speaker 1: given a piece of music, just as you have been
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Speaker 1: just as placed into your hands as a prescription. Just
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Speaker 1: as a play is running from the sideline. Salvation is yours.
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Speaker 1: Now it is our job to work it out, to
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Speaker 1: run the place to sing the music, to carry out
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Speaker 1: the responsibilities that the physician has designed for us. And
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Speaker 1: that's what this verse is about. Notice there's pain in it.
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Speaker 1: You do it with fear, you do it with trembling.
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Speaker 1: You don't hurry it up. You can't short circuit, you
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Speaker 1: can't shortcut growth. It's done through fear, and it's done
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Speaker 1: through trembling, through trusting, through respecting, through waiting on God,
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Speaker 1: through his presence. Because verse thirteen brings relief, it is
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Speaker 1: God really at work in you, not only in the willing,
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Speaker 1: but in the working of his good pleasure. If you
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Speaker 1: and I could see the working of God with our
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Speaker 1: visible with our eyes, if we could see it in
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Speaker 1: tangible form, would take our breath away. He is the
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Speaker 1: one who is striving. He is the one who is
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Speaker 1: at work. He is the one who is empowering. No
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Speaker 1: spirit of Ben Franklin lingers to make you the man
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Speaker 1: he was, But the spirit of Jesus Christ is ours
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Speaker 1: to make us the man he was, our sin notwithstanding,
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Speaker 1: and notice the ultimate goal, the purpose of it all,
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Speaker 1: is to will and to work for His good pleasure.
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Speaker 1: We are in a day where we want our pleasure,
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Speaker 1: We want our comfort. We don't want God's will nearly
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Speaker 1: as much as we want to be satisfied doing what
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Speaker 1: we would prefer to do. It's an ultimate plan where
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Speaker 1: he does his work and it results in his good pleasure.
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Speaker 1: You know what that checks A checks your attitude. It's
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Speaker 1: an attitude checkpoint virtually every day of our lives. That's
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Speaker 1: why verse fourteen follows verse thirteen. Do nothing without do
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Speaker 1: all things without grumbling or disputing. Now we move into
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Speaker 1: the realm of attitudes as opposed to actions. Look at
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Speaker 1: those two words. Some of you may have cut verse
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Speaker 1: fourteen out of your Bible, and so I want to
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Speaker 1: read it for you again. Do all things without grumbling
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Speaker 1: or disputing. Great words. Sometime these old Greek words are
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Speaker 1: worth a little stop. And I think this is a
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Speaker 1: case in point, go goodso is the word grumbling. It
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Speaker 1: sounds like grumble go goods, go good, so good. So
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Speaker 1: listen to the meaning of the word low toned, low toned,
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Speaker 1: discontented mutterings that good, low toned discontented mutterings, not loud
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Speaker 1: public statements, but grousing complaining. Some of you have that gift. JB. Priestley,
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Speaker 1: a British novelist, wrote, I've always been a grumbler. I'm
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Speaker 1: designed for the part. Sagging face, weighty underlip, rumbling, resonant voice.
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Speaker 1: Why money couldn't buy a better grumbling outfit than mine?
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Speaker 1: I love Abraham Lincoln's words. Every man after age forty
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Speaker 1: is responsible for his own face. Isn't that good? You
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Speaker 1: can usually spot grumblers. They look like grumblers do nothing
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Speaker 1: with grumbling. Oh that's so tough. Long line in the freeway.
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Speaker 1: Hurry up to get to the show. It's a sellout.
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Speaker 1: Preparing this wonderful meal, you burn it. Great plans for
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Speaker 1: the weekend, you have to work. This isn't deeply theological, folks,
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Speaker 1: This is every day living. And you know what happens
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Speaker 1: when we grumble? We poison the other mind, including our own.
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Speaker 1: One man put it very well. We have no more
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Speaker 1: right to put our discordant states of mind into the
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Speaker 1: lives of those around us and rob them of their
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Speaker 1: sunshine and brightness than we have to enter their houses
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Speaker 1: and steal their silverware. You're grumbling steals my silverware. You're
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Speaker 1: down in the mouth. Comments hurt my desire to be
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Speaker 1: up and about my grousing makes you negative? Now this
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Speaker 1: leads to disputing. See the other word grumbling is something
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Speaker 1: more to ourselves, low tone, discontented mutterings. But disputing this
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Speaker 1: word means vocal, ill natured argumentation, disagreeing, undermining, stirring up
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Speaker 1: feelings of a negative nature. I thought this was especially interesting.
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Speaker 1: Those who dispute arouse suspicion and doubt. You do that.
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Speaker 1: You don't do that, do you. It's not from the spirit,
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Speaker 1: it's from the flesh, my friend, Arousing a spirit of
28:59
Speaker 1: suspicion and doubt. Those are the things Jesus never did.
29:10
Speaker 1: Some of you know the ongoing debate that Cynthia and
29:12
Speaker 1: I have with the bougainvilla. Years ago. She really wanted
29:17
Speaker 1: us to plant bougainvilla. It's a wonderful plant if you
29:22
Speaker 1: look at just the blossoms, But hidden within the plant
29:29
Speaker 1: are thorns this long. When I look at the bougainvilla,
29:35
Speaker 1: I see thorns. When she looks at the bugainvilla, she
29:39
Speaker 1: sees blossoms. And there is a house not far from
29:43
Speaker 1: our home where we turn regularly to make it to
29:46
Speaker 1: the main drag, and she regularly likes to drive a
29:50
Speaker 1: little slower and enjoy the blossoms. I usually speed up
29:54
Speaker 1: to stay away from the thorns. She will point out
29:57
Speaker 1: at certain times of the year. Look how that bog
30:00
Speaker 1: me is blooming, I will say, do you realize it
30:03
Speaker 1: has thorns regularly all over there? If you walk by there,
30:08
Speaker 1: you may never get free. It catches you and holds
30:11
Speaker 1: you for half of the morning. She said to me
30:14
Speaker 1: on one occasion, do you realize, honey, that every time
30:19
Speaker 1: I mention bougainvilla, you grouse about the thorns, which led
30:27
Speaker 1: to disputing among us. I gave this illustration several years ago,
30:33
Speaker 1: and much to my chagrin, some dear saint in the
30:37
Speaker 1: church sent me ten five gallon containers of bougainvilla, which
30:45
Speaker 1: I never told my wife about. We still haven't planted bougainvilla.
30:51
Speaker 1: It is in God's will that we have bog and villa.
30:55
Speaker 1: You see how it can happen. You you fall into
30:59
Speaker 1: a slump. You have your own little thing, just like
31:01
Speaker 1: I have my little things, and we wind up saying, well,
31:04
Speaker 1: that's just our little thing. It's just kind of the
31:06
Speaker 1: way we're made. No person is made to be a grumbler.
31:12
Speaker 1: We cultivate it, we develop it, and it leads to
31:18
Speaker 1: a life of disputing. Lincoln, whom I quoted earlier, was
31:23
Speaker 1: known to have said, when I'm getting ready to reason
31:25
Speaker 1: with a man, I spend one third of my time
31:28
Speaker 1: thinking about myself and what I'm going to say, and
31:32
Speaker 1: two thirds thinking about him and what he is going
31:36
Speaker 1: to say. Very wise, counsel, you do that, most of
31:43
Speaker 1: your disputes will stop. It's a matter of attitude. Now, now,
31:51
Speaker 1: why don't we live a life free of grumbling and disputing?
31:54
Speaker 1: Why is that our goal? Well, next verse. By doing that,
31:59
Speaker 1: we prove ourselves to be different, blameless and innocent children
32:06
Speaker 1: of God above, reproach in the midst of a grumbling
32:09
Speaker 1: and complaining world, crooked and perverted generation. My friend Ray
32:16
Speaker 1: Stedman translates this living above reproach in the midst of
32:20
Speaker 1: a world of crooks and perverts puts it well, doesn't it.
32:25
Speaker 1: Surrounded by crooks and perverts, surrounded by the audacity of depravity.
32:32
Speaker 1: We are to live lives that are different. You don't
32:36
Speaker 1: have to shout a good attitude. It stands out all
32:39
Speaker 1: over the shop, It's known all over the office. It's
32:46
Speaker 1: the talk in bedrooms of a home. A parent with
32:51
Speaker 1: a great attitude is in much greater demand than one
32:55
Speaker 1: with a negative attitude. The kids naturally gravity tape toward
33:00
Speaker 1: that one. And so it is in life, and so
33:04
Speaker 1: it is in the world. Look again at verse fifteen.
33:09
Speaker 1: I find four startling differences between the believer in the
33:14
Speaker 1: world and the whirling in the world. First of all, blameless.
33:19
Speaker 1: The word means a purity of life that is undeniable
33:23
Speaker 1: and inescapable. There is a purity of life. There is
33:28
Speaker 1: an honesty of character that the world can't deny. There
33:32
Speaker 1: is an unwillingness to compromise in the realm of right
33:37
Speaker 1: or wrong. Blameless. Second, innocent, it means unmixed and unadulterated.
33:46
Speaker 1: I love this one. It means inexperienced in evil. Hey,
33:52
Speaker 1: listen to me. When is the last time you met
33:54
Speaker 1: someone inexperienced in evil? When is the last time you
34:01
Speaker 1: were seeing a film with someone who had to cover
34:03
Speaker 1: their eyes because the scene was too vile to watch? Innocent,
34:14
Speaker 1: untainted motives, untainted integrity, And while we're at it, we're
34:22
Speaker 1: children of God who are above reproach. This means free
34:26
Speaker 1: of blemish, and it's used often in the New Testament
34:29
Speaker 1: for animals that were brought to sacrifice, that were free
34:32
Speaker 1: of any spot or blemish, free of scars, free of wounds,
34:39
Speaker 1: free of scabs, free of filth. It means above reproach
34:53
Speaker 1: in the midst of I like that. It's never God's
34:57
Speaker 1: desire that his children retreat behind monastery walls and live
35:02
Speaker 1: our lives apart from the world. We are not to
35:06
Speaker 1: go into spiritual isolation wards and carry on like monks,
35:13
Speaker 1: mumbling songs and verses of scripture to one another. As
35:18
Speaker 1: much as we may admire such discipline living, that is
35:22
Speaker 1: not God's ultimate plan for his children. He puts a
35:25
Speaker 1: smack dab in an ungodly world and says, now, rather
35:29
Speaker 1: than isolating you, I insulate you. You be different. Let
35:35
Speaker 1: your attitude be different, let your actions be different, because
35:39
Speaker 1: you are shining. Look at this. You appear as lights
35:43
Speaker 1: in the world, holding forth the word of light, holding
35:47
Speaker 1: fast the word of life. I love that you appear
35:52
Speaker 1: as lights. Did you know that we are not to
35:56
Speaker 1: hide our message of Christ in this day of reluctance
36:02
Speaker 1: and resistance to speak openly of Christ? This says we
36:07
Speaker 1: are to appear as lights in the world. You know
36:10
Speaker 1: what that means? Luminaries, stars, stars. Where'd we get the
36:20
Speaker 1: idea of this little light of mine, I'm gonna let
36:24
Speaker 1: it shine. Where is it? Little like it's in a
36:30
Speaker 1: little flickering flame. Watch it. You're gonna blow that sucker out.
36:33
Speaker 1: Don't get near my light. I gotta hide that thing
36:36
Speaker 1: under a butt. No, you can't put a star under
36:39
Speaker 1: a bushel. It's never meant to be sung. This bold
36:47
Speaker 1: and pleasing light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.
36:53
Speaker 1: The Christian living a life like this is describing through
36:56
Speaker 1: the power of the Holy Spirit, is the talk of
36:59
Speaker 1: the time. He's the contagious spirit of the office. He's
37:06
Speaker 1: the change element in a school. And stars don't talk,
37:13
Speaker 1: they just shine. He's not the one that buttonholds everybody
37:19
Speaker 1: and gives them a tract and embarrasses people with the
37:24
Speaker 1: good news of Christ. He or she lives a life
37:27
Speaker 1: that is absolutely inescapable, and you've got to know the source.
37:33
Speaker 1: That's when he has the privilege of telling you, I'm
37:36
Speaker 1: going to show you something. Hold your place here and
37:38
Speaker 1: go back to Matthew five. Matthew chapter five. It is
37:45
Speaker 1: the Great Sermon of the Mount Jesus spoke it. If
37:48
Speaker 1: you carry a red letter edition of your Bible, this
37:51
Speaker 1: is all in red. These are the words of Christ.
37:55
Speaker 1: And I want you to notice something here Verse fourteen.
38:01
Speaker 1: You are the light of the world. There's no little light.
38:07
Speaker 1: You are the light that shines, that floods this world
38:12
Speaker 1: with shining light. You are the light of the world. Now,
38:16
Speaker 1: a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor
38:21
Speaker 1: do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel,
38:24
Speaker 1: but in the our bushel masuor peck measure, but on
38:26
Speaker 1: the lamp stand, and it gives light to all who
38:29
Speaker 1: are in the house. You light a candle when the
38:31
Speaker 1: electricity goes out, you hold it up so you can
38:34
Speaker 1: see your way through the house. You have a flash
38:37
Speaker 1: light in a dark night to work on your car.
38:39
Speaker 1: You shine it right down to where you're working. You
38:41
Speaker 1: want to flood the thing with light. Now look at sixteen.
38:46
Speaker 1: Let your light shine before others in such a way
38:50
Speaker 1: that they may see your good works and glorify your
38:54
Speaker 1: father who was in heaven. That's it. They see your works.
38:59
Speaker 1: They know it can't come from you. They know you're
39:01
Speaker 1: only human. And when they probe enough to discover, they
39:05
Speaker 1: find out You've got a power they lack, and they
39:08
Speaker 1: want to tap into it. Greatest witness in the world
39:11
Speaker 1: is the magnet of a life lived above reproach, can't
39:18
Speaker 1: stay away. That's what attracted you, and that's what attracted
39:20
Speaker 1: me to the good news of the Savior. Back to
39:26
Speaker 1: Philippians too. I want you to see this thought of
39:29
Speaker 1: stars one more time, among whom you appear as stars
39:34
Speaker 1: or luminaries in the world. Stars are different from planets.
39:42
Speaker 1: Stars generate light. You know that this Earth isn't a star,
39:47
Speaker 1: it's a planet. Doesn't generate its own light. All of
39:50
Speaker 1: our lights borrowed light bar it from the Sun. The
39:55
Speaker 1: Moon's a planet. All of its light is a borrowed light.
39:58
Speaker 1: Moonlight isn't there light, It's sunlight reflected off the moon.
40:03
Speaker 1: Stars are light giving planetary objects. And think how far
40:12
Speaker 1: away they are. And yet on the darkest night, when
40:15
Speaker 1: there is no moon at all, a well lit sky
40:19
Speaker 1: will give you enough light to make your way down
40:22
Speaker 1: the path. I know I've been there. I was looking
40:27
Speaker 1: out the window this morning, a sentini, having coffee. Real
40:29
Speaker 1: early you could still see the moon. If you looked
40:32
Speaker 1: out there this morning, you saw it. Bright clear moon
40:36
Speaker 1: on a on a smog free early morning was great.
40:41
Speaker 1: And as I looked at the moon, I thought, if
40:45
Speaker 1: I could travel the speed of light one hundred and
40:47
Speaker 1: eighty six thousand miles a second. First of all, I
40:51
Speaker 1: want to take her with me. But if I could
40:53
Speaker 1: travel the speed of light, I could be at the
40:55
Speaker 1: Moon if we took a direct shot in one of
40:58
Speaker 1: the third seconds. You know how long it takes you
41:02
Speaker 1: to get to the first star closest star? Four years.
41:08
Speaker 1: Gotta take your lunch for that. I mean four years,
41:12
Speaker 1: only six thousand miles a second, and you finally get
41:16
Speaker 1: to the first star, and that's the closest. And this
41:21
Speaker 1: galaxy is, according to some astronomers, only one among thousands.
41:29
Speaker 1: Is that great? Or what all of these things shining light?
41:34
Speaker 1: And that's us in this world, each one of us
41:42
Speaker 1: stars shining his light wherever we go? How do I
41:50
Speaker 1: do that? Verse sixteen, Holding fast the Word of life.
41:57
Speaker 1: You live this book, you walk this talk, You fulfill
42:03
Speaker 1: his word by his power. And I'll tell you won't
42:08
Speaker 1: have enough time to answer the questions people will be
42:12
Speaker 1: asking you. They can't stay away. The intrigue will drive
42:19
Speaker 1: them nuts. They'll have to know how you live it.
42:26
Speaker 1: Holding fast the Word of life, so that in the
42:28
Speaker 1: day of Christ, I may have cause to glory because
42:32
Speaker 1: I did not run in vain. That's an athletic term.
42:35
Speaker 1: Or I did not labor in vain. That's a workman's term.
42:38
Speaker 1: Paul loved word pictures. By the way, now that we're
42:47
Speaker 1: moving into this third balance, the first was a balanced
42:53
Speaker 1: in verses twelve and thirteen. The next was a balance
42:57
Speaker 1: between fourteen and sixteen of attitude and action. And now
43:03
Speaker 1: this is a balance between seriousness and joy. Paul was haunted,
43:09
Speaker 1: I think with the possibility of a wasted life. I
43:13
Speaker 1: get that when I read his writings, such as First
43:16
Speaker 1: Corinthians nine twenty seven, lest after I have preached to
43:19
Speaker 1: whether as I myself should be a shipwreck. I think
43:21
Speaker 1: he was haunted by that. He wanted so much to
43:24
Speaker 1: be a man of authenticity that the thought of his
43:27
Speaker 1: being inauthentic made him grown. It's like it does anybody
43:33
Speaker 1: who's authentic. Here's an example. I may have caused a
43:40
Speaker 1: glory because I didn't run in vain or work in vain.
43:45
Speaker 1: See those words repeated in vain. It means empty, wasted effort.
43:51
Speaker 1: I don't want to look back over my life and
43:53
Speaker 1: look back over those years and say that was in vain.
43:57
Speaker 1: It was worthless. He didn't want to be like the
44:02
Speaker 1: runner who ran a race for no reason, or like
44:05
Speaker 1: the workman who did work that was busy work for
44:07
Speaker 1: no purpose. My good friend Dave Roper, pastor now up
44:14
Speaker 1: in Boise, Idaho, was for many years associate pastored Race
44:19
Speaker 1: Dedmond at Palo Alto Peninsula Bible Church. Some of you
44:22
Speaker 1: know and appreciate the ministry and writings of Dave. I'm
44:26
Speaker 1: one of them. I can assure you. Dave says in
44:30
Speaker 1: one of his messages he was ministering on a campus
44:33
Speaker 1: of Stanford when he was up in Palo Alto years ago.
44:36
Speaker 1: He came early before the Bible study gathered, and he
44:39
Speaker 1: was standing there sort of looking around that little courtyard,
44:43
Speaker 1: and he noticed an overgrown area and a stone work
44:48
Speaker 1: sort of tucked away beneath the vines and overgrown brush.
44:53
Speaker 1: He was intrigued by what it was, and he went
44:55
Speaker 1: over and he pulled some vines away and cut back
44:58
Speaker 1: some of the overgrowth, and he saw this bird bath,
45:02
Speaker 1: this sculptured apparently hand sculptured out of stone. This bird
45:08
Speaker 1: bath no longer being used, no longer being seen, no
45:16
Speaker 1: longer even enjoyed by the little birds that once bathed
45:23
Speaker 1: in it and sat on its side, and he said,
45:27
Speaker 1: with great insight, Lord, keep me from building bird baths
45:35
Speaker 1: with my life. I think that's the kind of prayer
45:39
Speaker 1: that was often on Paul's lips. Very healthy prayer. Lord.
45:45
Speaker 1: I realize I'm not able to pull off a life
45:49
Speaker 1: like a Ben Franklin. I'm not made like that. That's
45:52
Speaker 1: not my calling. I realize that I'm not gifted in
45:56
Speaker 1: areas many are that on whom I respect, Lord, I
46:00
Speaker 1: don't want to run in vain, and I don't want
46:02
Speaker 1: to work in vain serious thought. In fact, the apostle
46:09
Speaker 1: goes on to say that even if I'm being poured
46:12
Speaker 1: out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service
46:17
Speaker 1: of your faith. Word picture again. It's the picture of
46:20
Speaker 1: a chalice of wine that Pagans poured out before or
46:24
Speaker 1: after many of their meals. Some of the families more
46:27
Speaker 1: devoted to the gods than others would do it after
46:30
Speaker 1: or before every meal. It was called a libation, pouring
46:36
Speaker 1: out the wine to the gods to gain their favor
46:44
Speaker 1: or to squelch their anger. Paul applies it to the
46:49
Speaker 1: Christian life. He says, I I may never get out
46:52
Speaker 1: of this prison. I may never get past this turn
46:58
Speaker 1: in my life. I may die in Roman imprisonment. My
47:04
Speaker 1: life may be poured out as a libation upon the
47:08
Speaker 1: sacrifice and service of your faith. Even though that's true,
47:11
Speaker 1: look at the balance. Verse seventeen closes, I'm depressed, and
47:19
Speaker 1: I share my depression with you all. No, that's not
47:22
Speaker 1: what it says. Even if I'm being poured out as
47:25
Speaker 1: a drink offering, I rejoice and I share my joy
47:29
Speaker 1: with you all. In fact, he says in verse eighteen,
47:32
Speaker 1: you do the same thing. I urge you rejoice in
47:35
Speaker 1: the same way and share your joy with me. I've
47:38
Speaker 1: had enough bad news. I've had enough negative information. I've
47:43
Speaker 1: had enough things told me that deal with depression and
47:45
Speaker 1: discouragement and this morally warped world of ours. I've heard
47:51
Speaker 1: enough dirty stories. Share your joy with me. And so
47:55
Speaker 1: he balances out the seriousness of his walk, the seriousness
47:59
Speaker 1: of his walk, with a plea for joy. I love
48:02
Speaker 1: this letter for that reason. You can't get through one
48:06
Speaker 1: of the four chapters without smiling. Again and again. The
48:11
Speaker 1: man smiles. He doesn't laugh with but he laughs at
48:15
Speaker 1: life because life isn't funny, but seen through the perspective
48:21
Speaker 1: of God's lenses. He sees the end as a finishing
48:26
Speaker 1: where God gets the glory, and that makes him smile.
48:30
Speaker 1: One of life's special pleasures is meeting up with veteran
48:34
Speaker 1: Christians who still have a sense of humor. Isn't it wonderful?
48:38
Speaker 1: Isn't it great to be around some of God's best
48:41
Speaker 1: men and women getting up in years. They've walked with
48:44
Speaker 1: the Lord long enough to worry less and less about
48:49
Speaker 1: how they appear externally, and more and more how they
48:52
Speaker 1: live internally. And one thing I notice about them, Those
48:55
Speaker 1: that really reach me are those that are able to
48:57
Speaker 1: laugh at life, those who'll find joy even in the
49:02
Speaker 1: sacrifice of the service for the King. Now, having said
49:06
Speaker 1: all of this great information from this paragraph, we got
49:11
Speaker 1: a problem. We've got a real problem self. My mouth
49:20
Speaker 1: wants all of these things to be true? Really does
49:24
Speaker 1: my mind really wants these things to be true. I
49:28
Speaker 1: really believe them. I really want to live a balanced life.
49:31
Speaker 1: I really want Christ to control me. My problem is
49:34
Speaker 1: I'm shackled in this bag of bones that doesn't want that.
49:38
Speaker 1: There's a self inside me, just as there wasn't there
49:41
Speaker 1: is inside you that says I vote no I'd rather grumble,
49:47
Speaker 1: I'd rather argue. I'd rather have my way. I don't
49:51
Speaker 1: want to be joyful. I want to be serious. I
49:56
Speaker 1: don't want to have my light shine before man. I
50:00
Speaker 1: don't want their light to shine on me. I want
50:03
Speaker 1: to make out like a bandit in this life. I
50:06
Speaker 1: don't want to give up anything I want to get
50:08
Speaker 1: that's inside ourselves, and it screams to get out. It
50:14
Speaker 1: screams to take control, streams to get out of control.
50:21
Speaker 1: So I can't address these things without addressing a self
50:27
Speaker 1: and doing so, let me give you a couple of
50:28
Speaker 1: things that might help you. These things have helped me,
50:32
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to keep it in mind these days
50:34
Speaker 1: so I can live this kind of life because there's
50:37
Speaker 1: something inside me that says, look, just trust me. I
50:40
Speaker 1: can pull it off. You got the training, you got
50:42
Speaker 1: the charisma, you got the skills, and you can make
50:45
Speaker 1: it happen. That's self talk. I want Christ to talk
50:51
Speaker 1: and self to be subjugated put on hold. So first
50:58
Speaker 1: thought is this regarding self control, its urges to take
51:06
Speaker 1: the credit, control, its urges to take the credit. Self
51:16
Speaker 1: is always ready to smile for the camera. Self is
51:22
Speaker 1: always ready to drop its name to get the credit.
51:28
Speaker 1: John Wooden, former coach of the basketball team Westwood UCLA Bruins,
51:36
Speaker 1: in a book called They Call Me Coach, gives this
51:39
Speaker 1: three statement piece of advice Chapter twenty eight. Talent is
51:44
Speaker 1: God given. Be humble. Fame is man given. Be thankful,
51:54
Speaker 1: conceit is self given. Be careful. Talent is God given.
52:05
Speaker 1: Be humble. Fame is man given. Be thankful, conceit is
52:11
Speaker 1: self given. Be careful. You may be a terribly gifted,
52:20
Speaker 1: capable young man, a woman. The sky may literally be
52:24
Speaker 1: the limit for you. That's good counsel to remember. Control
52:30
Speaker 1: self surges to take the credit. Second, conquer its tendency
52:36
Speaker 1: to take charge. Conquer its tendency to take charge. You
52:49
Speaker 1: need Christ. You and I need the Savior. This isn't
52:54
Speaker 1: just a want to, It's a need. And our need
52:57
Speaker 1: isn't partial, it's total. In my travels in the fall
53:03
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety early fall, I had the privilege with
53:07
Speaker 1: a couple of our colleagues from Fullerton Church to be
53:12
Speaker 1: in Germany. One of my great delights, along with ministering
53:17
Speaker 1: there to the service men and women, was a chance
53:20
Speaker 1: to see the old haunts and paths of Martin Luther,
53:27
Speaker 1: the German Reformer. It's great being there. It's great touching
53:32
Speaker 1: stones he touched. It's great looking out windows he looked
53:35
Speaker 1: out of, and sitting at at the table where he wrote,
53:41
Speaker 1: and hearing his voice in the woodwork. I stood at
53:45
Speaker 1: the place where he stood at the Diet of Burns.
53:50
Speaker 1: I have a picture in my study now. That's a
53:54
Speaker 1: picture of the great Cathedral at Burns, stones black with age,
54:00
Speaker 1: the same stones he saw in the same building he stood.
54:06
Speaker 1: And the most significant gathering in the history of the church,
54:10
Speaker 1: the Roman Church gathered there to watch this maverick and
54:16
Speaker 1: hopefully to bring him to his knees and to have
54:18
Speaker 1: him recant in his position and his doctrinal stand for
54:22
Speaker 1: salvation by grace through faith alone sola fide, which he
54:29
Speaker 1: did not do. I mean, prelates and cardinals and pope
54:34
Speaker 1: and emperor alike. It's the most significant gathering that had
54:37
Speaker 1: ever gathered, right there in the heart of Germany. And
54:40
Speaker 1: here stood one lone man, like a steer in a blizzard,
54:45
Speaker 1: against the wishes of the of the church. One of
54:48
Speaker 1: his friends pulled on his robe just before the the
54:53
Speaker 1: debate began and said, brother Martin aren't you afraid? Got
55:00
Speaker 1: a wonderful answer, He said, greater than the Pope and
55:05
Speaker 1: all his cardinals, I fear most that great Pope self.
55:14
Speaker 1: Quite a way to live, Not to walk into life
55:18
Speaker 1: as though self can carry me through, like I pull
55:21
Speaker 1: up my own boots and I step on my own way,
55:24
Speaker 1: and I pursue my own course. But I say, through
55:29
Speaker 1: the power of Jesus Christ, I will accomplish what you
55:32
Speaker 1: wish for me. I will work out my salvation with
55:35
Speaker 1: fear and trembling, and I will remember it as you
55:38
Speaker 1: who is at work, and me, including those pitstops in
55:44
Speaker 1: the journey, including the handicaps, including the heartaches, including the disappointments.
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Speaker 1: And I will not fake it, I will not hurry it,
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Speaker 1: and I will not do it on my own. For
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Speaker 1: greater than the Pope and all his cardinals, I fear
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Speaker 1: most that great Pope self. This is a lonely message
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Speaker 1: in a day of self help for your being told
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Speaker 1: you can do it, just set your mind on it.
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Speaker 1: It's a twisted understanding of a life worth living. The
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Speaker 1: Christian can do it only because God is in it,
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Speaker 1: and the Christian wants to do it only because Christ
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Speaker 1: is empowering it. That's why we must walk so sensitively
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Speaker 1: with our God. Let's bow for a few moments of
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Speaker 1: thought on this. This is one of those difficult messages
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Speaker 1: where you try to communicate the importance of reaching the stars,
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Speaker 1: but in fact the motivation for that has to come
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Speaker 1: from the spirit of God. Where we talk about the
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Speaker 1: value of living a life that is above the level
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Speaker 1: of just getting by or mediocre living, but in fact
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Speaker 1: the spirit of God has to empower it. There is
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Speaker 1: no shortcut the life of godliness. It takes time to
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Speaker 1: be holy. It takes the pain of disappointment and the
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Speaker 1: heartache of loss, and even ill health at times. Takes
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Speaker 1: the reminder that you are very limited in your strength,
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Speaker 1: and when you are weak, he is strong. I invite
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Speaker 1: you to Jesus Christ today, who has the power you need.
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Speaker 1: Without him, there's no hope. Please come today. There will
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Speaker 1: come a time when the mouth will declare and the
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Speaker 1: heart will make known the work of God in your life.
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Speaker 1: But this is much too intimate, much too significant a decision.
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Speaker 1: Lest anyone be given to believe that salvation is a
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Speaker 1: matter of simply public declaration, you deal with it in
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Speaker 1: your heart first. If you will confess with your mouth
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Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God
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Speaker 1: is raised him from the dead. You will be saved.
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Speaker 1: I invite you to Jesus Christ today, who has the
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Speaker 1: power you need. Without him, there's no hope. Lord, in
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Speaker 1: a world of fakery and hurry, in the world of
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Speaker 1: great striving and self help methods, we find ourselves abandoned.
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Speaker 1: To You. It's the only way to live. And we
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Speaker 1: bring ourselves at this moment to an acknowledgment that our
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Speaker 1: trust in You is total, not partial. I pray for
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Speaker 1: those today who have lived lives that have been marked
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Speaker 1: by image rather than substance, who have been in a hurry,
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Speaker 1: unwilling to wait. Lord, do a work in that youthful heart.
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Speaker 1: Quiet our spirits. Remind us that you're in charge. Not
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Speaker 1: only do you have a plan in mind that includes link,
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Speaker 1: but it includes depth. And give us the cooperative spirit
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Speaker 1: to work within your power to do your will. Thank
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Speaker 1: you for those this very day who give their lives
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Speaker 1: to your son Jesus Christ. Encourage them and strengthen them
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Speaker 1: as they begin their walk with you. We pray in
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Speaker 1: the great name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message while laughing Keep Your Balance was copyrighted
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Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety and the sound recording was copyrighted in
1:00:32
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight by Charles R. Swindall, Inc. All
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Speaker 2: rights are reserved worldwide