What an awesome Spirit filled day it was!!! We welcomed two new members into our Church Family!!! Welcome Carl and David!!! And tonights 5th Sunday Singing was soooo much fun!!! I so love our times of Fellowship and Worship!! Pastor Curtis Friendship Baptist Church Sunday Morning, June 29, 2014 “The Outreach of Faith: The Christian Life” Philippians 3 Pastor Curtis Mathis ________________________________________ Philippians 3 (NIV) 3 Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. >8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, >14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. 17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Intrduction: John A. Mackay, former president of Princeton Theological Seminary, in his book about South America titled That Other America, tells of an interesting interview with a full-blooded Peruvian Indian. This man had a Ph.D. degree from a leading university in the United States and was an authority in pre-Incan civilization. He knew both personally and academically what had happened to the culture of his people. The question Mackay asked him was this: “Can religion change a person?” This is a tremendously important question. We operate on the assumption that religion can change a person. We gather at least once a week for worship, and we spend vast sums of money on places of worship. We send people all around the world to try to win people to Christ. Yet sometimes this haunting question lurks in the background. The problem is that we have seen too many people whom religion has evidently not changed. This is not the type of question that can be answered with a glib word. It is a question that can best be answered by illustration. True, you can point out those who were supposedly failures of faith. But on the other hand, you can point out others who are veritable walking trophies of grace. Yes, religion can change a person. A vital faith in Jesus Christ is the greatest force in the world. This response to God through Christ in faith we call the Christian life. Christian life is not only begun by faith, it is lived by faith. Faith for frightening times has an outreach: the Christian life. Philippians 3:3 gives what one New Testament scholar has called “one of the clearest, most concise statements describing a Christian found in the Bible.” Paul identified the true believers in God to the Philippian Christians. Their marks are spiritual rather than physical. This one verse gives us three insights into why the Christian life is the outreach of faith. I. The Christian life is the outreach of faith since it is a life of response to God. Notice that Paul identified the true people of God as those who “worship God in the spirit.” Jesus taught us that God is Spirit and that those who worship God must worship him both in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). A. Worshiping God in spirit frees worship. God is not bound nor contained. Worship can be conducted any place where a person meets God. Worshiping God in spirit also frees the form of worship. A true worship experience does not have to follow set patterns. Jesus promised: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). We can worship God by the leading of the Spirit of God. B. Worshiping God in spirit defines worship. What is worship but response to God? We meet God face-to-face in worship. In a church service, in a moment of prayer, while reading the Bible, we meet God. And when we meet God, we are to respond in repentance and faith. True worship is not just keeping the forms of worship but is responding to God. From true worship will flow the results of the Christian life: mission, witness, Bible study, ministry. But it all comes about in response to God, and we do not respond to God if we do not worship God. II. The Christian life is the outreach of faith since it is a life of commitment to Jesus Christ. A. Commitment to Christ is the means of salvation and the essence of the Christian life. People cannot enter the Christian life until they have met Christ and have committed their lives to him in faith. This removes all source of pride. If salvation were attained by our goodness or by our efforts, we could have room for pride. But Scripture plainly teaches that salvation is the gift of God’s grace. And since it is by God’s grace, there is no place for pride. Our rejoicing can be in nothing else but Jesus and his salvation. B. Commitment to Christ is the means of Christian growth. The Christian life is to be a life of growth in grace, and the way we grow is through commitment to Christ. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s legend of the Great Stone Face reminds us of this. The boy Ernest would look longingly at the great stone face on the side of the mountain. It was a strong, kind, honorable face that thrilled the heart of this boy. There was a legend that someday a man would appear who would look like the Great Stone Face. Through all his childhood, and even after he became a man, Ernest kept looking at the great face and for the man who was like it. One day, when the people were discussing the legend, someone suddenly cried out, “Behold, behold, Ernest is himself the likeness of the Great Stone Face.” By committing our lives to Jesus and looking to him, we can grow to be like him. III. The Christian life is the outreach of faith since it is a life of continual faith in God. A. The response of faith in God must be continual. Paul designated the ones of the true covenant as those who “have no confidence in the flesh.” This means that our confidence or faith cannot be on outward privileges, such as who we are, what we have done, or where we came from, but only in God. B. The Christian life is wholly a life of faith. It is not just the faith of a moment but the faith of a lifetime that matters. Remember the battle cry of Martin Luther? “The just shall live by faith,” he proclaimed. In Romans 1:17 where these words are found, the full quotation is: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” “From faith to faith”—we are to live from one level of faith to another. C. Faith is a growth process. The faith one has when accepting Christ as Savior should not be the faith that is held after years as a Christian. Faith should grow, mature, and strengthen. If the Christian life is a life of continuous faith, then some things will have to be removed. First Peter 2:1–3 lists some things that must be removed from our lives. One can hardly grow in faith while burdened with these elements that should be stripped away.> In humility we approach God and ask for the renewal of strength, the forgiveness of sin, the cleansing of life, and the firming up of faith. Our confidence must be in God alone. Conclusion: These are frightening times, but God has not called us to fear but to have faith. The faith that we have in God is sufficient for us to meet any problem in the time in which we live. The outreach of faith is the Christian life. In faith we live, witness, and minister for God. Because His Grace is enough, Pastor Curtis
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 02:42:48 +0000
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