Category: Sermon

Categories
Philippians Sermon

Joy Filled Ministry – Philippians 1: 12-18

Good morning church! As we are all aware, we’ve been going through a series titled “Joy filled life” from the letter to the Philippians. Especially over the last few weeks, our main focus has been on the topic of joy-filled prayer – the how, why and what of joy filled prayer.

This week we turn our focus to “Joy filled Ministry”. Now we may think – does “ministry” only apply to pastors and church leaders? The answer is no. Every person who has received the gospel and placed their faith in Jesus Christ is called to ministry.

From a new born believer to a believer who’s been in the faith for many years – we are all called to ministry – to proclaims the grace of God that He’s revealed and promised through His Son Jesus Christ. So let’s read today passage from Philippians 1:12-18

Can our ministry truly be joy filled? Is it possible to live a life where we can daily experience joy as we share the gospel? And I understand why it might be hard for us to believe that truth. Maybe it’s our circumstances. Maybe it’s fears. Maybe it’s our reputation – all these things can make it difficult for us to see ministry as something that brings joy. I believe today’s passage offers us three amazing truths to encourage our hearts:

1. God’s purpose is greater than our circumstances (v12-13)

12 I want you to know, brothers,[e] that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,

I think it’ll be good to understand what exactly happened to Paul to get the context. What were the circumstances that affected him at that point?

  • Restricted Freedom: Apostle, pastor, author and global missionary – Paul – he should’ve been travelling to various cities preaching and teaching God’s Word. Instead he’s confined to a room where he’s under house arrest being bound by chains and being guarded by a Roman soldier 24/7.
  • Demeaning Status: He was labelled as a prisoner of Rome. Perceived as someone who committed a crime against the state. What does a tag of a prisoner/criminal do to someone’s ministry and reputation? It can affect it big-time.
  • Suffered for Christ: In the eyes of the world, life was quite comfortable and prosperous for him while he was an unbelieving Jew, but the moment he turned to the Lord things started to get really tough for him. He didn’t do anything deserving to be arrested and tried in a court. The guilt that he’s being charged for: proclaiming God’s love and rescue through Jesus Christ. He suffered for Christ.
  • Delayed Justice: Years have passed since he was arrested in Jerusalem. Multiple rounds of interrogation and court hearings took place but with no result. Eventually he had to appeal to Caesar and that’s how he arrived in Rome. While he wrote this letter, the hearing with Caesar was still pending. So he’s not received justice till then.    

You can see and understand how this was not an easy time for Paul and yet we see him make a remarkable statement where he says that all this served to advance the gospel! How can something so difficult serve to advance the gospel? The answer is in v13.

13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard[f] and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

What’s unbelievable is that the imperial guard are a group of 10,000 soldiers who are personal body guards of the Emperor. Influencers? Absolutely – Big influencers. And the “rest” can probably refer to the members in Caesar’s palace and even the city. We know in Philippians 4:22 – in Paul’s closing words of the letter he mentions “saints from Caesar’s household send their greetings”!!! Isn’t this amazing that members of Caesar’s palace and maybe even the royal family turned to Jesus Christ through this situation?

Because God is God & because He is omnipotent – He can use unlikely individuals in unlikely situations to reach unlikely people groups with the gospel!

Unlikely Individuals: Paul – the renowned cross-cultural missionary – who would’ve thought that God would chose him to minister out here!

Unlikely Situations: Another interesting observation is that this fruitful ministry did not take place in a huge hall or a stadium but rather in prison!

Unlikely People Groups: This was probably the last place most believers would chose for ministry because if things go south then it could mean immediate death because you’re directly approaching the ruler of the powerful Roman kingdom.

I’m sure for many of us – as believers we earnestly desire to serve the Lord and be active in ministry. Although we desire fruitful ministry, the problem is that we want to chose our own mission field! We think “if I had a better job, then I would serve God fully”, “if I go to so and so place, then I would be more active in sharing my faith”, “if God could change my circumstance, then I will be able to serve Him better”, “If God could give me better people around me, then I’ll minister to them better”. So we want our own mission field but that’s not how God sees it.

God says “You are in the perfect mission field that I’ve appointed for you right now”. You’ve been uniquely placed in this phase in life, in this unique circumstance and among these unique people because you’re in the perfect position to make Jesus known”.

Some of you might be thinking “Man, I’m in this current circumstance as a consequence of my sin, can God still use me?” If you repent of your sins, turn away from it today and trust in the forgiveness & purpose that God has for you – you can still be used by God! God is more than able to do it over.

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[a] for those who are called according to his purpose. (Rom 8:28)

How do we know if it’s true? Well when we look at the Bible we see numerous stories of men and women that have messed it up. Jacob, Moses, David etc. But when they understood the faithfulness and mercy of God, they turned to Him in repentance and God used them.

Unless God calls you to another place or another situation, remember that you are in the best and perfect mission field for God to use you to reach unique people with the gospel. That’s our calling! It might look different from the person sitting next to you. That’s fine. But this is the right mission field.

2. God’s faithfulness is greater than our fears (v14)

14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word[g] without fear.

What’s interesting is to see how Paul’s imprisonment is now influencing and encouraging other believers to speak and share the gospel fearlessly. But how was that possible? How can other believers get encouraged by the sufferings of a brother in Christ?

Here’s my thought on this. I think it might be because of the continual joy and witness in Paul’s life. They probably thought – “He should be depressed or frustrated or fearful or bitter by now” but for some reason he’s full of joy and persistent in witnessing. How come? Was it because Paul was emotionless or because Paul was in denial and didn’t accept his circumstance? No, I don’t think so.

Not only did Paul understand that God’s purpose is greater than his circumstances but he realized that God’s faithfulness is close to him, is near him especially when he’s going through difficult times.

Turn with me for a minute to Acts 23:11. This happens while Paul is still in Jerusalem before going to Rome. The Pharisees and Sadducees and all the Jewish leaders are interrogating him in front of a Roman tribunal. At one of the statements that Paul makes – the entire court room erupts in great violence. To the extent that the Romans are fearful that Paul will be torn into pieces. They quickly commanded him to be removed by force and brought him back into the camp before things got worse. You can imagine the confusion and fear that Paul experienced at that point. And then we read v11.

11 The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”

Our Lord Jesus is not someone who just commands us to witness for Him and live for Him while He observes from a distance. Our Lord is with us…He stands with us especially as we go through difficult circumstances. His faithfulness never departs from us! And that’s why even in the most terrifying and troubling circumstances we can still experience great joy and boldness.

Just think about the compelling statement we make when in spite of our circumstances we still joyfully minister to others. Instead of going further away from God during difficult circumstances, when other people see us grow closer to the Lord Jesus then they are emboldened and inspired. Not because they are bold and strong in themselves but because they’ve understood that God’s faithfulness is much greater than our fears!

3. God’s glory is greater than our reputation (v15-18)

15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

What Paul says in v15-18 is that there were two types of people that were being emboldened to preach the gospel. One group were the ones with a sincere motive – they were inspired by Paul imprisonment as we read in the previous point.

But the other group were people who were using this opportunity to harm and damage Paul’s reputation. Although there isn’t too much mentioned about what they did, we know this for sure that they did it with impure motives for selfish gain.

Interestingly in v18 we see Paul make an unusual statement – he says whether in pretense or in truth Christ is proclaimed and in this I rejoice! Now Paul isn’t approving of their wrong motives…he’s clearly calling that as sin but he’s taking a step back to not make his personal reputation as the main issue. He wants to bring glory to God and isn’t primarily concerned about the hit that his reputation is going to take.

And here’s the principle I want us gauge: as we engage with people and share the gospel and when God gives us the privilege to see fruit in ministry, it could also invite envy from some people. They might come and say “I’m more qualified and more skilled – I deserve to have that ministry” and this selfish ambition might drive them to attack and damage your reputation. What should we do that time? Should we fight back? Retaliate? Give it back to them in their own terms?

I think we need to remind ourselves that it’s not about us ultimately. Our ministry is not about us but for God’s glory. The church is not ours but it’s for God’s glory! It belongs to the Lord Jesus. So even as we are fully invested in ministry – we are still in a sense holding onto it loosely.

Saju and I constantly remind each other and we always mention it to you all – that this church doesn’t belong to either one of us. It’s God’s church and He’s appointed us as overseers right now. When God say it’s time to step down from this role, we’ll do that. And this doesn’t only apply to pastors but also to all of us ministering to people around us, God’s glory is more important than our reputation. This deals with humility and that’s why it’s primarily a heart issue.

Categories
Philippians Sermon

The Substance of Joy filled Prayer – Philippians 1:9-11

A few weeks back, we began a series titled “Joy-filled life” as we’ve been reading through the letter to the Philippians. Paul, who is the writer of this letter, emphasizes the importance of prayer right at the start itself. It’s a fantastic thing to study about and navigate through as a church.

A couple of weeks back, we tried to answer the “HOW” question of prayer as we went through the five ingredients of joy-filled prayer. Last week we learnt about the “WHY” of Joy filled prayer – what motivates to pray with joy and today we’ll try to understand the “WHAT” of Joy filled prayer – what’s the content of joy-filled prayer – what’s the substance of Joy filled prayer. Turn with me to Philippians 1:9-11: 

9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

If you were to pray about only one thing – just one thing for a person who is dear to you – it can be a family member or a friend or a co-worker, what would you end up praying for? I want us to think about what our honest answers would be.

  • Probably better job opportunities to be provided for that person.
  • Probably some healing if that person has an illness.
  • Probably that the person gets more engaged in church ministry.
  • Probably marriage if that person is looking out to get married.

The options are many and let me say there’s nothing wrong in praying and asking for God’s wisdom and help in any of these. But if you were only given a single point to pray for – what would be of highest priority? Think about it.

Here’s what the biblical text says is the main thing: “LOVE” – Love for God!

Out of all the things that Paul could pray for the Philippian church, he prayed intensely and earnestly that they would love God. The word prayer out here means supplication (Yachana) – which means begging and sincerely asking someone to do something for them. That’s the intensity with which Paul is making this prayer. And what does he pray for?

1. Abounding Love

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment (v9)

So it’s not just love mentioned here – but abounding love – increasing love for God.

Why is that important?

Because love is what compels (Majboor) us to joyfully obey God, love drives us to radical obedience. Jesus says “If you love me, you will obey my commands” (John 14:15) God receives no glory and no honour if we obey him reluctantly and ritualistically.

Truly delighting and loving our Creator & Redeemer is what honours Him! And that’s why he prays that their love abounds more and more.

But one question here: how does our love for God abound more and more? How does it increase?  The answer is in the same verse… by knowledge and discernment

a) Knowledge: Knowledge is knowing God through His Word. Knowing God is much different from just knowing about God. For example, I can say I know a lot about the Prime Minister, but that isn’t same as knowing him personally. I can read a lot of information about the PM online but still not know him. Similarly, “knowledge” in the Bible always implies knowledge that comes through personal fellowship.

In another prayer that Paul makes to the Ephesians, he puts it in this way:

17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Eph 1:17 – NIV)

Now we may think what the connection between knowing God and loving God is? Because the more we “know God” through His Word, the more we’ll grow in our love and appreciation for Him!

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

The whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation is God’s love story for a people that were broken and lost.

When we see biblical narrative: We see God who is Holy, full of wisdom, Powerful – created the entire universe with His command – He spoke and came to be.

Out of the overflow of His joy and purpose, He created man and woman in His image. His intention for them was that they would love, obey and trust Him because He created them.

But quickly into that storyline, we see the first man and woman decide to rebel against God. They wanted to be their own God. They wanted to decide what was right and wrong for themselves.

Guess what that sounds like all of us in our thoughts and actions. And they went ahead and rebelled against God and threw themselves & all of humanity into brokenness and corruption.

From that moment on, humans were born in sin and fully saturated with sin. The immense brokenness that we experience in our hearts, actions and the world around us is a consequence of a separated life from God.

And we all stand guilty to face God’s wrath and judgment. This could’ve been the end of the story but “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” – (Eph 2:4,5)

When we were dead in our sins and unable to respond to God. Unable to reach out to God. He reached out to us. He came after us. And He stood in our place to face the penalty and the punishment that was directed toward us.

He died for us. Buried in a tomb and three days later rose again victoriously so that if we turned away from our sins and trust in the loving sacrifice and life of our Master and Redeemer, we would be saved! We would be made free! We would be declared not guilty! Most importantly, we would know God!

We would know the One who created us. We would see the One for whom we needed to live. We have a living hope that we look forward to! And when we read and think and pray and talk and believe these truths from Scripture, it fills our heart with love for God!

While on the one hand, knowledge is Knowing God through Scripture,  

b) Discernment: Discernment is knowing God’s will for us through Scripture – What does God call me to do? What does God expect from me?  

And this also enables us to love God more. Now we might wonder how does that happen?

Many times when we think about commandments, we think about it as a task-list to be accomplished or rules that curb our freedom but what if we looked at God’s commandments as the safe paths that our Father has laid out for us to protect and provide for us?

What if we saw it as loving instructions from our Creator who knows what’s best for His creation? What if we saw it as commands that will help us understand the character of our Father better? So discernment is knowing God’s will for us! Both Knowledge and Discernment help us to abound in love for God.

But not only is the prayer for abounding love, but it also mentions:

2. Sincere love

“so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,”

When I love God by knowing who He is and Knowing His will for me, it should now lead me to approve and examine all the decisions and choices in my life.

The word approve means “scrutiny and examination”. We live in a time when reflective thinking isn’t encouraged. We keep ourselves occupied in so many things, including our phones, that it doesn’t give us any time to evaluate our choices and decisions in our lives.

Every single day we are making hundreds and millions of choices that all have implications with our hearts and responses to God’s will. To

give a few examples:

  • How should I respond to my parents?
  • What should I say in this situation or that?
  • How should I respond to my boss?
  • How must I deal with my sinful temptations?
  • Whom should I marry?
  • Which job should I take?
  • What should I watch on TV or the internet?

And these choices are not to be thought as of having any lesser spiritual value.

Let me take the job question, for example. Now when we usually think about another job – we often only think about if it’s paying more and if it’s more convenient.

But as a believer, we need to be asking some more questions to understand our heart motivation:

  • Will this job hurt or help my witness for Christ?
  • Am I finding my identity rooted in this job?
  • Am I seeking the approval of man by taking/not taking this job?

So, a lot of our decisions and choices daily have moral implications. God’s desire for us that we would examine these decisions and choices and lovingly obey Him.

But why is it that we find ourselves in many occasions and situations choosing ourselves and our sins instead of God? It’s because we love our sin more.

But, instead, in all our choices, the real question we need to ask ourselves honestly is “Do I love God more” or “Do I love this sin more?” That’s the real question we need to ask.

And as big and weighty is this question, we are hit with a more substantial question “how can someone like me in my frailty and weakness in sin be PURE and BLAMELESS on the day of Christ?”

I think the answer is found in the next verse which is why it’s not just abounding love and sincere love but it also the Exalting love.

3. Exalting love

“filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

It’s God who takes it upon Himself to assure and establish us.

V11 says on the day of Christ believers who have fully trusted in Him will be filled with the fruit of righteousness! Now, this is not self-righteousness – it’s not talking about our good works or self-efforts or accomplishments in our flesh – those all are “filthy rags”. It’s talking about the righteousness of Christ that we receive by faith.

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:21)

There was a great exchange that happened on that cross because of which sinners like you and me have hope by trusting in God.

We receive the righteousness of Christ! His robe…completely by His grace!

Not just Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice but we have His own Spirit that’s being placed within us that “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4)

And also with that, we have the promise of God’s faithfulness in holding us till the end: My Father, who has given them to me,[a] is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (John 10:29)

And what does all of this do in our hearts? When we see our Lord laying down His life for us to give us His righteousness, when we see the Spirit working in us, when we see our Father holding onto us – this love produces great hope which makes us want to repent and rely on Him. How can we run away from our God?

Therefore, like Paul, let us also pray over us and over others that, more than all the needs and necessities, that we grow in his love. His abounding love, His Sincere Love, His Exalting Love.

Categories
Philippians Sermon

Why do we fail to Pray for each other? – Philippians 1:7-8

We are doing a new series called the Joy-Filled Life, expository preaching through the book of Philippians. We are looking through the opening statements of Paul’s letter to the Church in Philippi in chapter 1.

Last Sunday, we saw HOW Paul prays for the Church of Philippi.
Today we will discover WHY Paul prays for the Church in Philippi, and
the Sunday after this we will see WHAT Paul prays for the Church in Philippi.

Before we look at the ‘why’ let’s once again refresh our memory and remind ourselves ‘how’ Paul prayed for the Church.

  1. He prayed with Thanksgiving
  2. He prayed Frequently
  3. He prayed with the Gospel at the centre
  4. He prayed by drawing encouragement from past testimonies
  5. He prayed with an Expectant Heart

Even though we all said amen to the excellent sermon that Jinson preached last Sunday, confessed our prayerless heart from one another, committed to being more prayerful. My guess is most of us have failed to do so in this past one week.

And that is why today, we will learn the possible reasons why we might have failed to uphold each other in prayer as preached last week.

To discover the answer, we will now read the next two verses of Paul’s introductory statements to the Church of Philippi. It’s Philippians 1:7-8

Philippians 1:7-8
It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

After explaining HOW Paul prayed for the Church, he is now saying ‘It is right for me to feel this way about you all. In other words ‘The reason WHY I prayed for you the way I prayed for you’ is because….

• I hold you in my heart
• Because you are partakers with me of grace
• I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus

Let me share with you three things I understand from Paul’s statements that motivated him to continue praying for them.

1. He held the Church close to his heart.

‘I hold you in my heart.’

If we are continually failing to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Church, then a relevant question to ask ourselves would be is it because we fail to hold each other close to our heart as Paul did.

And if that’s true then why and what stops us from doing so?

The first reason I could think of is that we fail to see the Church as God sees it.

The Church in the past and even today is portrayed in the wrong light in most of the world, and I don’t know what version of the Church you are exposed to and what version of the Church was picturized for you.

  • For some church is portrayed as a building where we go and say our prayers, make confessions to the statue of Mother Mary and baby Jesus.
  • For some church is described as a place where you go to get your needs met. Either healing or some support and help
  • For some church is portrayed as a place to find new friends, hang out with cool people and have fun
  • For some church is described as a place where only the so-called holy people go – A place where you will be judged for your wrongdoings, for your looks, for your behaviour etc.
  • For some church is where gossip happens
  • For some church is portrayed as an organization or a setup to control and manipulate people to give their money & make the leaders rich.
  • For some church is described as a place to quiet your soul, meditate and discover yourself.

The truth is, none of these is a correct representation of what the Church is described in the bible. And the reason we may be failing to hold the Church close to our heart maybe because in some manner we have a wrong understanding of the Church, we are failing to see the Church as God sees it.

You and I are the Church – The redeemed and saved children of God. It’s not a building, not a place, not an organization, not a Trust, not an NGO, not a Christian program on GOD tv & not a Youtube channel on the internet where you listen to Christian music and bible talks.

The Church is not a lifeless thing to which we can’t relate to.

The brother and sister in the Lord who is right now accessible to you in person, who you can meet, talk and have fellowship is the Church, sitting right next to you is the Church. Even the ones who may not be part of The Gathering church but some other church, a dear friend who is on the Lord.

In Ephesians 3:9-11 Paul writes it is through you and me (the Church) that God will make known the manifold wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places which is according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul was able to hold the Church close to his heart because he understood the high value of this relationship with each person because of Christ, and the eternal purpose for which God was gathering people in this manner. He saw the Church as God saw it and not how the world (the Pharisees & Sadducees) portrayed it.

How we chose to see the Church depends on us. The world and people around us may have given us a faulty representation of the Church, but we must turn to the scriptures and see the Church as God sees us, only then we will be able to see how precious and marvellous is this body of Christ. Motivating us to hold it close to our heart and pray unceasingly to see it grow and flourish.

2. He Identified himself as part of the family.

The second reason why Paul would pray for the Church the way he prayed is that he identified himself with the Church when he said: “you are partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel.”

He identifies that it is the same grace of God that saved him, also saved his brothers and sisters in the Church of Philippi. He recognizes that once we were all sinners and enemies of God, instruments of wrath. But God, in His mercy, sent his only begotten son Jesus to die for us so that we can be set free from sin and death as we confess our sins and believe in Jesus. He identifies, it was the same body of Christ that was broken for him was broken for them; the same blood that was shed for him was shed for them.

He relates to his salvation as the union with his real family.

Even Jesus, when he was asked to meet his natural mother and brother who was waiting on him, said: “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

I am not saying that we have to ignore and discontinue our relationship with our natural family, but I’m saying we have to identify ourselves with our real family, which is the Church.

Brothers & sisters, it is essential that we see each other that way, to depend on in times of trouble, to lean on in times of turmoil, to confess our innermost feelings of shame when convicted of sins, to find encouragement when we are discouraged or disappointed.

And just as any other family, we may not be perfect. Each one will have their unique personalities, have their background they are dealing with, struggles that are unique, etc. But we are still a family.

When we see each other as our real family, know each other well and the struggles we go through we will feel the burden to uphold each other in prayer all the time, just as Paul.

3. He Longed to be with his family in Christ.

The third reason why Paul felt the way he felt for the Church is because he had a longing to be with them and to spend time with his real family in Christ. He says “how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus”

He didn’t just hold the Church close to heart and identified himself as part of the family, but he longed to be them.

Brothers & sisters, have you ever thought, what is it that stops us from longing to be with each other. Is it anger, unforgiveness, envy, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, doubt, distrust, or something else

These feelings are not from God. As a good Father, God desires his family to be united and close-knitted. The world outside is dark; there is danger lurking at every corner, the devil and his agents are all around the place waiting to pounce on God’s children.

To make sure we are safe and healthy, God wants us to stay united, desiring and longing to be with each other all the time. In the book of Acts, it is said that believers would meet each other every day, devoted to prayer, devoted to the apostles teaching and devoted to breaking of bread. And the Lord added to their number.

Sunday mornings, Gospel communities during the week, get-togethers, casual hangouts, movie nights with each other, going on a trek, are all opportunities for us to hang out with one another as often as we can. Let’s develop a natural longing to be with each other all the time as Paul did, and as we know each other better, know each other’s struggles in life, know each other’s desires and dreams, our hearts will be naturally drawn to uphold each other in prayer. Because that’s what we do, depend on God for all the needs and answers in life.

Conclusion

If you are struggling to pray for your brothers & sisters in church as Paul did, ask yourself these vital questions, and you will find your answers.

Q: What stops you from holding the Church close to your heart?
Q: Do you fail to identify yourself with your real family? Why?
Q: Is there a longing in your heart to stick close to your church family? If ‘no’ why?

Categories
Philippians Sermon

Joy-filled Prayer – Philippians 1:3-6

Good morning church! We began a new series last weekend titled “Joy-filled life” which we’ll be covering from the letter to Philippians. Brother Saju set up the series for us beautifully by explaining the source of joy from the life testimonies of Paul and Timothy.

We learnt that the source and motivation for joy came through their “Devotion to Christ” and their “Desire for the Kingdom” which is why they introduce themselves as “servants of the Lord Jesus” in the very first verse. In today’s passage, we’ll be looking at the theme “Joy-filled Prayer” from verses 3-6.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:3-6)

Have you ever thought about praying with joy? For some of us it might be a strange combination of words. “Praying” and “Joy” might seem like opposites. Growing up I always struggled to understand this. We would go for long overnight prayer meetings and I would end up feeling really restless.

I would observe how some of the uncles and aunties would get emotional every time they prayed and so I wondered “Oh! Maybe we need to shed tears every time if God needs to hear us”. Please don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing wrong with all-night prayers and if your heart is being moved genuinely while praying, there’s nothing wrong with that either.

As a child, my own prayers were standard formula prayers that I would try to say with the most innocent expressions. I would keep repeating the same prayer every day. All to say that my observance as a child/teenager was that praying was a joyless activity. And it’s only to be used when things get really bad and out of hand.  And I couldn’t be more wrong about that. What we’ll be studying in today’s passage and continuing into next week’s passage is the topic of “Prayer” – specifically “Joy-filled Prayer”. What does “Joy-filled Prayer” look like? What are the secret ingredients to it?

 1. Thanksgiving

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you (v3)

Paul is exulting in thanksgiving as he’s thinking about the Philippian church! He is expressing his gratitude to God for these believers. In order to understand why Paul starts with thanksgiving, I looked up on all the other mentions of thanksgiving in the Bible. Time and time again in the Bible we see a consistent pattern of thanksgiving:

In the OT, we see that “thanksgiving” is a Command:

Psalm 100:4 – Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! – It was something that God desires in His people

In the NT, we see thanksgiving always mentioned alongside prayer. Wherever there is prayer, there is also thanksgiving.

Col 4:2 – Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. – It’s something that’s necessary

Revelations 7:12: We see all the angels around the throne of God, the elders and the 4 living creatures falling on their faces before God in worship saying “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen” – It’s something that’s done as a response to God

If I have to sum up all these passages, it seems that a thankful heart comes from an understanding of who God is – how great and merciful He is & an understanding of our humble position before a great and merciful God.  It comes from understanding how God is our Help and how helpless we truly are.

If you’ve been around in any church, you would be familiar with the phrase “Thank God or Praise God”. Sometimes we use it just as an automatic filler statement. We know that that’s not how Paul used it here. Paul’s idea here is about adoration and worship to God! Because he knows that whatever is happening in lives of these believers is only because of God.

Even though Paul was known as the one who planted this church at Philippi – but he realizes and acknowledges that God was the one responsible for saving them, changing their hearts, giving them a new life and purpose. If anything, Paul was simply an instrument used by God.

Sometimes we mistakenly presume that we are responsible for changing people’s lives. I shared the gospel with this person, I encouraged this brother or sister, I led worship, I preached this message, I taught this lesson – God is the one who is changing people’s hearts.

We are just channels and instruments in the hands of God. Thanksgiving is the way by which we direct the credit and glory to God! And it’s also something that God uses to keep our prideful hearts at check. If today we are feeling really self-centred and prideful, a good question to ask ourselves would be: “what has my thanksgiving looked like over the past week?”

2. Frequent

always in every prayer of mine for you all (v4)

Another ingredient to joy filled prayer is “frequent and consistent prayers” made for other people. But why does God want us to repeatedly come back to him with the same requests? Does God have trouble hearing our prayers? Or is God trying to wear us down with these repeated prayers? Certainly not. I think there might be a few reasons for this:

  • God wants us to develop a true burden for the people in our lives. How many times have we seen this? That as we are praying for a brother or sister in Christ or for a neighbour who doesn’t believe in Jesus, we realize how God is actually creating a real burden for them in our hearts? To the extent where we are now being moved in our hearts and actions to find a way to fill that gap…find a way to serve and meet that need.
  • To teach our hearts what dependence looks like. Sometimes we think we know what trusting God means but we truly don’t. In reality we are relying on several crutches of self-confidence. And I think frequent and consistent prayers for other people’s faith reminds our hearts that the person can’t change or grow in his faith apart from the work of God.

3. Gospel-focused (v4,5)

making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel

Did the Philippians have financial issues at the time? Sure. Did the Philippians have a need of physical healing among them? Sure. Could there be a genuine need for physical and material help? Sure. But it’s interesting how Paul doesn’t make that the focus of his prayer.

The focus of his joy filled prayer is the “gospel”. It’s the good news of God’s salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.  But why did Paul not focus on these other things? Because Paul knows that they can only experience true joy through Jesus and the gospel. Nothing else. Nothing additional.

Imagine a parent who has a child who constantly gets cranky and demands different toys from the parent. Now if that parent spends all of his money to give toys to satisfy the child’s desire, and doesn’t have the money to provide for food and shelter, would you say that the parent cares for the child? No, it would unloving for the parent to do that.

Why? Because the child has more important needs than just toys. Similarly, our deepest need is not a material thing, is not the best job, is not the most attractive salary, is not found in a relationship – our deepest need is to be restored in a relationship with God which happens through Christ. Our deepest need is to enjoy a living daily relationship with God.

This should inform the way we even pray for our brothers and sisters. I’m not saying it’s wrong to pray for each other’s physical needs but if that’s the only focus of our prayers, then something is wrong. Why? Because we need to be more concerned if their hearts are being cared for. We need to be more concerned if they are growing in their faith. We need to be more concerned if they are living holy lives. We need to be concerned if they are obeying God no matter what the cost.

4. Encouraged by testimonies (v5)

from the first day until now.

Rewinding back to God’s faithfulness in the past is one of the key ways by which we can have joy filled prayers. When we think about how the church at Philippi came into being – we can’t help but notice the miracle wonderworking power of God.

When Paul arrives in Philippi one day he goes out during the time of prayer and speaks with some of the women who were there. Lydia was also present there and the word says as she heard the word, the Lord opened her heart to the gospel – she and her entire family got baptized.

Later on Paul and Silas cast out a demon from a slave woman and her owners put a false accusation and sent them to jail. While they were singing hymns and praying that night, a great earthquake shook the jail and the prison doors flung open.

The jailer thinking that the prisoners fled was about to kill himself. But then Paul called out to the jailer loudly to let him know that they were still there. The jailer comes to them and asks them what must he do to be saved!!! He and his family get saved and baptized that night. From both these incidents, the church at Philippi was birthed out of.

You can imagine the joy in the heart of Paul as he recollected how God was faithful from Day 1 till date with the marvellous work that He began in the hearts of the believers at Philippi! Don’t forget the testimonies…don’t ignore the testimonies of your brothers and sisters in Christ – why because these are stories about God’s faithfulness which will fuel your heart to pray with joy for them.

5. Expectant (v6)

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

We can see a Confident Expectation in what God was going to do!! For Paul to make such an emphatic statement – “I am sure of this….”, he had to be trusting in

  • The Character of God – God is faithful to do this – to do what He has promised. He won’t abandon. He won’t forget. He won’t change His heart and mind.
  • The Ability of God – God is powerful enough to do this. God is fully capable of changing us from the inside out and making us perfect like His Son. Displaying the perfect righteousness of His Son. The work that began before the foundations of the world. The work that revealed itself on the cross. The work that will be fully completed when Christ returns will happen.

Confident Expectation I believe cannot be manufactured apart from the Word of God. We need God’s word to repeatedly remind our hearts that He is faithful and will continue to be faithful.

We need God’s word through all the stories right throughout history to remind us that our God is omnipotent – there is nothing impossible for Him! This confident expectation as we pray for our brothers and sisters will bring about joy filled prayers.

One last thought – I know sometimes when we hear a sermon like this on prayer – our automatic response is of guilt because we know we aren’t spending as much time as we ought to do. But I want to address this slightly differently…I think the question isn’t so much about how much time…rather the question is what have we made our prayer out to be? Is it just a checklist for us that we tick in order feel good about ourselves and our day?

Have we made our prayers out to be only about ourselves? Have we not come to God in prayer because we are self-reliant and prideful? Those are the things we need to be repenting of. And let’s turn to our Savior who is the reason why our prayers are being heard and accepted by God. Let’s trust in Jesus Christ who has now removed the legalistic ritualistic understanding of prayer and given us the privilege of knowing and talking to our Father.

Let’s ask God to transform our prayer life that is filled with joy as we pray for others. Let’s ask God to fill it with thanksgiving, consistency, gospel-centredness and expectancy.

Categories
Philippians Sermon

Introduction to a Joy-filled Life – Philippians 1:1-2

We are starting with a new series called ‘A Joy-filled Life’. We will be preaching through the Epistle of Philippians and discover what does joy-filled Christian life look like.

No one in the world doesn’t want to be happy, from children to adults, from the rich to the poor, men or women; everyone wants to be happy in life. Moreover, when each one of us thinks about happiness, we often have this list of things or events in mind that we wish would happen, which according to us will give us the ultimate joy we’re seeking.

Here I have made a list of things that people like us generally seek in life, and let’s be honest and check on the items that are on our mind which according to us will make us happy.

The reason we are calling this expository preaching series ‘A Joy-filled Life’ is for two reasons. Firstly, because time and again in this Epistle, we see Paul exhorting the church in Philippi to rejoice in the Lord.

A well-known passage from Philippians is Philippians 4:4 where Paul exhorts the church saying “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

Secondly, because in this Epistle we will find all the right reasons & encouragement needed to be truly happy in life. However, surprisingly, none of the items we’ve listed down is mentioned anywhere in this letter.

The reason they are not mentioned in the letter is because the joy these materials things will give us is all a momentary joy.

For example, think of buying a new toy for a child. When they don’t have, they yearn for it; when they receive it, they are super happy & excited. And then, depending on the durability and attractiveness of the toy, you know how long it will last.

Another example is when people are young, we think a partner in life will make us happy; when we have a partner we think marriage will make us happy; when we are married and broke we think a job will make us happy; when we have a job we think a house will make us happy; when we have a house we think children will make us happy; when we have children we think travelling will make us happy…. And it goes on.

What we will explore in this Epistle is not a momentary joy but a permanent one that satisfies our soul, but only if we understand and grab hold of it fast.

If you look at the context of this letter, the place from where Paul & Timothy is writing & the circumstances that the church is going through, none of it will look appealing, but even then, as we read the letter we can sense the joy of the Lord overflowing from their hearts.

According to Paul, even the possibility of him getting killed will eventually bring him everlasting joy.

Phil 1:21 he writes – For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

This morning we will look at the first two verses of Philippians 1, and even though there is a lot to be said from these two passages I just want to focus on our two, Paul & Timothy. I want to look deeper into their lives and discover the source and the reason for their joy as they are writing this letter.

Verse 1 & 2 …

“Paul and Timothy, servant of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseer and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul and Timothy come from two different backgrounds.

Paul comes from a very staunch Jewish family, a son of a Pharisee, a Roman citizen by birth. His original name was Saul of Tarsus. He was such a devout Jew that he used to persecute and kill the followers of Jesus. During those days he was a terror and people was afraid of him and many left Jerusalem to practice their faith in Christ. After reading the description above, we know that Paul was a very fierce, fearless and strong-headed man.

Then one day as he was travelling on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus on a mission to arrest the followers of Jesus and bring them back, Jesus appeared to him in a great light and revealed himself.

He was around 30 years old when he met Jesus. Also, after meeting Jesus his life changed, and he became a follower of Jesus, and since then he began to preach and tell people about Christ whom he met, the one who saved him and gave him eternal life.

He devoted himself in studying the scriptures, reaching out to the gentiles, planting churches and exhorting believers all across Asia Minor. His life and ministry were so impactful that out of the 66 books in the bible, 13 are his letter to various churches.

While writing the Epistle of Philippians, Paul was somewhere around 50 years old, having more than 20+ years in the ministry.

Timothy, on the other hand, was born of a Jewish mother who was a professing Christian called Eunice and his father was a Greek. His grandmother was also a believer called Lois. Which means Timothy was raised a Christian family, grew up reading and studying the scriptures like my boys, maybe homeschooled too. We also get to learn about Timothy that he was a very reserved and timid guy.

Timothy met Paul during Paul’s second missionary journey and become Paul’s companion and co-worker in the Gospel. Timothy was around 20 years younger to Paul, at the time of writing this letter may have been about 25-30 year old.

The past 20 years, Paul discipled Timothy in the Lord, modelled a godly life for him to follow & pursue, walked with him in all his struggles, encouraging him in the Lord and helping him grow in his faith.

Now, after 20 years, for Paul to open the letter to the Philippians saying “Paul and Timothy, servant of Christ Jesus” speaks a lot about their friendship and partnership in what they are doing.

I can imagine both of them sitting together side by side in the prison as they are beginning to write this letter to the Church in Philippians.

The reason I wanted to share their journey with you is to highlight the fact that they were so different from each other, different backgrounds, different upbringing (in our language we can say one came from a believer family and one from an unbeliever family), different personalities, different age groups; and yet they had the same goal and pursuit in life.

And as we’ve looked at the lives of these two men, I want to highlight two things about them that stand out for me and the ones that convicted me as I was preparing this sermon, which I believe to be the source and motivation of their joy-filled lives.

a. Devotion to Christ.
b. Desire for the Kingdom.

From the time they both heard the Gospel and received Jesus as their saviour and Lord, they were fully devoted to Christ. Paul left his full-time job as a persecutor. I believe it was a well-paying job he had to leave, sacrifice his career, leave his family for the sake of the Gospel (they might have rebuked, even threatened to kill), he left the company of his ungodly friends and started travelling to places wherever the Holy Spirit led him.

Timothy, as well, was so zealous for the Lord, that he left the comfort of his home, sacrificed the delicious food his mom prepare for him, left the loving warmth of his Father and Grandmother who must have loved him so dearly. It wasn’t an easy decision; there was no guarantee that he will come home alive. But yet his love for the Lord compelled him to leave all his comforts and join Paul in his missionary journey, preaching the good news of Jesus wherever the Lord led him.

And also, as their lives were transformed by the love of Christ, they were carried away and caught up with a great desire to seek his Kingdom and participate in his kingdom work with full zeal and vigour, to the extent where they had absolutely no desire for the pleasure of this life, even marriage.

Brothers & Sisters, I know you are seeking for joy in your life. No one can guarantee whether what you are seeking or desiring right now in life will even happen, and also if it happens, there is no guarantee that it will give you the ultimate joy and happiness you soul is seeking for.

But I know of someone who will surely fill your heart with true joy and happiness, one that will last for eternity. His name is Jesus.

He’s already performed the greatest miracle of all, by setting us free from the captivity of sin and restoring back our relationship with our creator God. It the same Jesus that met Paul on the road to Damascus, the same Jesus who changed the lives of Lois, Eunice and Timothy.

If you die today without achieving any of the goals in the list I showed you, but you’ve received Christ in your heart, I’m confident that you have lost nothing. In Jesus, you have gained everything.

Like Paul & Timothy Now, let us fill our hearts with this truth every single day of our lives. Reminding ourself, day in and day out, of this precious gift we’ve received in Christ. Living a life fully devoted to Jesus and seeking and desiring His Kingdom above every other pursuit in life.

Let’s find our joy in Christ and his finished work for us on the cross of Calvary.

Let’s make a choice today, as we go out of this room. And let’s be happy.

Categories
Hebrews Sermon

Gospel Shepherding – Hebrews 10:23-25

Good morning church! As a church we’ve been going through a series called “Gospel Renewal” and covered various topics like prayer, humility, repentance, dependence, satisfaction, obedience and stewardship and the overall theme was that the good news of God’s love for us in Christ is not just the secret but the power enabling us to do all of these things.

Today’s theme is the last one in this series titled “Gospel Shepherding”. Let’s turn to our main text for today from Hebrews 10:23-25.

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and ball the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Cricket fever is high in the country right now due to the World Cup. I’m sure many of us have been following the India matches. During one of the matches this week – there was a time where MS Dhoni was batting alongside Rishabh Pant.

Right there you saw two generations of wicket-keepers batting together. One of the commentators at the points said something like “The experienced veteran MS Dhoni shepherding the young, dynamic, enthusiastic Rishabh Pant”.

And I thought that was a good way to describe shepherding – encouraging, guiding and helping someone else in their growth. I thought if the secular world understands the need of shepherding someone, how much more is the need for us as believers! After all we know how it’s not just the church leaders that are called to shepherd people but it’s each and everyone no matter what stage you are in your Christian life.

Husbands are called to shepherd their wives. Parents are called to shepherd their children. Church members are called to shepherd each other – shape and influence each other in a way that they are pointed toward Christ. But the question is how? How can I shepherd the people in my life?

Two points:

1.Shepherding requires the gospel

Shepherding needs us to know, believe and live out the gospel. I’m sure most of you were like “Duh. This is like an anti-climax.  Off course I knew that. What’s new about it?” Before I answer that let’s see where it’s mentioned in this passage.

V23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

When I think about “Holding fast”, I imagine the picture of a child holding the hands of the parent tightly. And what do we need to hold fast to? The confession of our hope. What is that? The gospel! By gospel I mean what God has done for us through Jesus.

Now some of us might think “Okay, I believed in the gospel many years back, but why do you say that I cannot shepherd the people in my life without that? Why do I have a need of the gospel today?” That’s a great question. And that’s why I want us to look at this chart on the 3 dimensions of the gospel.  When we look at the Bible we see that the gospel is described in 3 dimensions.

  • Past: When I believed I was made right with God through Jesus.
    • When I put my trust in Jesus, God fully forgave me of all my sins and received me as His own child.
  • Present: Every day I am being made more like Jesus
    • As the Spirit works in my heart through the Bible, and as I yield myself to what He shows me, I am being changed and renewed into Jesus more and more each day.
  • Future: When Jesus returns, I will perfectly reflect Him
    • On the Day of Judgement, I will not be ashamed. I’ll be given a new body like Jesus’ body – free from corruption and separated from the presence of sin. And I’ll be invited to share in His inheritance.

You can see here how there are 3 dimensions to it. The problem is sometimes in our hearts and beliefs, we end up only focusing on one of these dimensions. And that has a few dangers that I want us to be aware of.

Past: If we only focus on the Past dimension of the gospel – where I was made right with God in the past, it can lead us to become prideful and licentious. We’ll think that “Jesus died for my sins so there’s no need for me to work out my salvation. Jesus already died for my sins so now I can live any way I want with no responsibility” forgetting the present and the future dimensions.

Present: If we only focus on the Present dimension of the gospel – where we are made more and more like Jesus each day, it can sometimes lead us into despair. As the Spirit makes us more aware of our sin, we’ll think that “Oh I am so not like Jesus. I’m the opposite because my thoughts and my actions don’t match up to Jesus’ life.

God can’t accept someone like me who keeps failing in my performance” forgetting the past dimension of what Christ did on the cross.

Future: If we only focus on the Future dimension of the gospel – where Christ comes back again those who trust Him as Lord will be like Him, it can lead us to becoming lazy and not steward our time, talents and resources well.

There have been people in history who have left their jobs and left their responsibility of family thinking “Jesus is going to come back soon so why waste time in working a job and taking care of a family. Let me just wait on the coming of the Lord” forgetting the present dimensions of the gospel by daily stewarding what God has given us to glory of God.

When we believed in the gospel and surrendered our lives to Jesus, we did that to all the 3 dimensions. We don’t get to pick and chose one of them. We need all the 3 dimensions of the gospel to live out our Christ walk! That’s why the writer of Hebrews say “Let’s hold fast to it – without wavering”. “Firmly hold on to it. Don’t let go”.

But if we all are honest; we’ll admit that our faith does waver. We don’t always hold fast to the gospel. Like a little child, it feels like we are losing grip from the hands of our Father. But here’s the awesome truth at the end of v23 “for He who promised is faithful”. The wonderful hope for us is that God is holding on to us! He is keeping us. And He reveals His faithfulness through His blood bought promises!

If you’re here today, struggling to believe in the past dimension of the gospel – “When you think…can God actually forgive all my sins? Can He actually wipe my slate clean after all the horrible things I’ve done?” Here’s what Romans 8:1 says There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I remember my 9th standard Sunday school teacher telling me – God in His holiness can’t even look at us because of our filth and sin. But for those who surrender themselves to Jesus, when looks at us He sees His Son. Wow. Even though I was an unbeliever at that time it blew my mind.

If you’re here today, struggling to believe in the present dimension of the gospel – “I know I’ve trusted in Christ, but I feel like I’m losing the battle to sin each day”. Here’s what 1 John 4:4 says “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

God has placed His own Spirit within us. He has written His law on our hearts and our minds so that we can be empowered to live in obedience to God as we yield to the Spirit.

God has placed His own Spirit within us. He has written His law on our hearts and our minds so that we can be empowered to live in obedience to God as we yield to the Spirit.

If you’re here today, struggling to believe in the future dimension of the gospel – “Will God really remove every iota of sin and make me like His Son when Jesus comes back?” Then here’s what Jesus says. “I told you that I would sacrifice my life and die for your sins – and I did that.

I told you that I would rise from the dead and give you a new life – I did that. I told you that I would change you from the inside out and you can see how I’ve brought you so far from the day you believed. In the same way I’m telling you “I who began a good work in you will bring it to completion”. That’s my promise. I’m putting my word on the line. In doing so I’m putting my character on the line to show you that I am faithful to every thing that I promised I will do.” 

That is the wonderful hope that we need! We need all the 3 dimensions! And it’s the joy that this gospel produces which wells up in our hearts making us want to shepherd other people. Not only does Shepherding require the gospel but:

2. Shepherding involves intentionality and consistency

Intentionality: 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works

There is a “considering and some thought process” that goes behind shepherding. It’s not random. You’re taking some time to think about the people in your lives.

You’re taking time out to think about their needs. You’re thinking about areas in their lives where they are failing to believe in the gospel. And then you’re praying and asking God to enable you to love and serve them.

I’m into client-servicing and my part of my job involves scheduling calls or face to face meetings with my clients. I’ve had a few occasions where I’ve gotten on calls with little or no agenda or plan on what to speak and those calls end up being fruitless.

On the other hand there have been times when I’ve had a clear agenda and I’ve even thought through what I want to speak to them and those calls/meetings end up being meaningful. The client appreciates the help that he received at the end of the day. So if in the business world – intentionality is useful and important, how much more importance needs to be given to thoughtful consideration to encourage a brother or sister in Christ?

I understand that some of us are wired differently in terms of our personality (organized vs unorganized) but I think this passage is still urging us to put thought into our meetings with each other. Taking time out & putting some thought communicates that you care about people.

Let’s pause for a moment and ask ourselves a question – when was the last time we took out time before a Sunday service or a gospel community thinking about a church member and considering how could we encourage that brother or sister in the Lord?

When was the last time you took time out to think how you could encourage your spouse or family member in the Lord? Thinking through what would it look like for us to help meet a need? How can we stir each other up to love and obey God?

Shepherding involves intentionality but it also involves:

Consistency: 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and ball the more as you see the Day drawing near.

There is a consistency to this intentionality as well. As elders one of the questions we get asked is “Why should I be committed to a local church?” And usually we try to answer it is by pointing people back to Scriptures like this telling them it’s actually a command from God. And let’s understand God’s heart behind this command.

God’s desire is not to take attendance of His sheep. He’s not a rule-book keeper. His heart is v25 “encouragement”. He wants us to be encouraged in our faith and walk with Christ. He knows that His sheep forget the gospel, they forget the 3 dimensions, he knows that they struggle with sin and suffering, He knows that they are torn by the brokenness of the world and so He wants them to be encouraged more and more.

He wants us to encouraged on a personal level where we are encouraged by other believers and He wants us to intentionally encourage others with our words, gifting and service. There was a season in my own life between the time at my first church and the Gathering – for about a year when I was inconsistent and not committed to a local church.

I kept thinking “If we plant a church, then from that day onwards I will be very committed”. Not only was I disobedient to God’s call of being committed but I also missed out on the encouragement that my heart needed and that I needed to offer other believers.  

So I’m sharing this from a place where God had to teach me this truth – that Christian growth happens in consistency. Consistency of meeting up and learning from and encouraging other believers. Sometimes we think meeting once a month with other believers or once a quarter is enough for us – that’s not how God designed us to grow.

We can only grow with other believers as we interact with them consistently. It’s true that no church is perfect because we’re all sinners needing God’s grace. But it’s a total joy to see how God in the midst of this brokenness actually is restoring and repairing people like us through the church.

And we miss out on experiencing the beauty of this when we aren’t being intentional and consistent.

Categories
Matthew Sermon

Gospel Stewardship – Matthew 25:14-30

Our passage for today is Matthew 25:14-30 and the topic we will be looking at is Gospel Stewardship.

Everything we have and everything we see around belongs to God – Our time, treasures, talents, things & places. In 1 Cor 4:7, Paul writes “Whatever we have, we have received from God” – Beginning with our lives and everything in it.

We are merely Stewards of what actually belongs to God.

Biblical stewardship isn’t just about being good managers of our schedules, our skills, and our stuff, but it calls us to use all these things in the way the Lord wants, for His glory.

Here in this chapter, Jesus is telling a series of parables to his followers explaining about the kingdom the God. In the parable right before our passage, he tells the story of the five foolish virgins who were unprepared in receive the bridegroom and missed the chance to go with him.

In verse 13, Jesus says, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Jesus is not merely saying stories to entertain the disciples. He is sharing some life-impacting truths through these parables. He is talking about the Kingdom of God, he is revealing the heart of the Father and his expectation from his children.

In the parable, Jesus is telling us that God is like this man who called his servants and entrusted them with his property. He then gave talents to each one of them according to their abilities, watch them steward those talents and rewarded them accordingly.

Here are a couple of things we learn from this parable.

God has gracefully given to us.

To Jesus’s original hearers, a talent meant a very large unit of monetary value. People whose net worth equalled a talent were very well off. Scholars say that one talent in today’s world would be worth crores of rupees.

In reality, no servant’s stewardship was insignificant. Each received something of great value.

But this parable is not really about stewarding money. It is about stewarding our time, talents, treasures, abilities – everything we have and possess, God entrusts to us.

No one in this room can say God did not give them anything.

If you say so then, consider these words of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:7

“What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

The master wasn’t obligated to give the servants anything. Each servant received his talents by the grace of the master.

Remember, God had graciously given to each one of us sitting here according to our capabilities. To some, artistic abilities, writing abilities, cooking skills, serving skills, talking skills, musical abilities, counselling abilities, dancing abilities, parenting abilities, etc.

And as we faithfully steward whatever is given to us, more will be provided, as it was given to the servants who brought back double portion.

He expects us to put in hard work.

When the third servant brought back the one talent as it was and gave it back to the Master, the Master answered and said ‘You wicked & slothful servant’.

God hates a lazy person, it makes him angry to see a man lazy. There is no reward for the one who is lazy. Proverbs 12:24 – The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labour.

The other two servants took the talents, worked hard and brought back double the portion, and the master applauded them and gave them more.

God expects us to put in hard work to grow our artistic abilities, counselling abilities, cooking abilities, talking skills etc.

He expects us to seek and apply wisdom.

When the lazy servant came with nothing, the master says “couldn’t you at least be wise to invest the money with the bankers, and at least brought back the interest”

Proverbs 9:6 says “Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

The two faithful servants applied wisdom to double their money and brought back returns to their master, and he was pleased.

God expects us to seek and apply wisdom as we steward the talents he’s given to us.

Proverbs 4:5-6
“Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.”

The wisdom that comes from heaven – a pure; peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. – James 3:17

He will hold us accountable.

Finally, God has not given us the talents for our own self-gratification. But someday he will hold us accountable for how we’ve stewarded the time, talents & treasures he has given us.

“everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:48). जिसे बहुत दिया गया है, उस से बहुत मांगा जाएगा, और जिसे बहुत सौंपा गया है, उस से बहुत मांगेंगें॥

This parable is meant to strike the appropriate fear of God in us and force us to ask what we are doing with the gracious gifts that has been given to us.

We cannot run away from God.

Brothers & sisters, in reality, we are the lazy and foolish servant in the parable. Even though we know that God is just and holy, who can reap without sowing and gather without scattering the seed. We, in our flesh, chose to rebel against him, we chose to remain slothful, and we chose to remain foolish. We are the sinful ones.

If anyone here says, no I’m not like that foolish servant, I work hard, I apply wisdom to everything I do. I would ask you, as you do these things, are you always doing it for the right reasons – seeking God’s glory above everything.

1 John 1:8 says “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Brothers & sister, we cannot be a biblical steward if we haven’t really understood the Gospel — the story of what God has accomplished through the life and death of Jesus Christ.

Yes, we are supposed to work hard
Yes, we are supposed to apply wisdom in everything we do
Yes, we are supposed to be accountable to God

But not without the inspiration of the Gospel, of what Christ has accomplished for us.

When we received the saving grace of Jesus, the Gospel changes not only a person’s destination in eternity but also his heart and mind here and now. The Gospel transforms more than a person’s relationship with God; it also transforms a person’s relationship to everything else.

That’s why, when someone says he’s become a believer, the most reliable evidence that a person has been converted is that he begins looking for ways to use his time, talent, and treasure in service to the Gospel.

Only Gospel-inspired stewardship is the true stewardship.

By the Gospel & for the Gospel

When a person eagerly begins to use his resources to serve and spread the Gospel, it testifies to the value he places upon the Gospel and to the fact that he treasures the God of the Gospel above all.

Let me give you a couple of examples, and then I’ll finish.

For example, the way I treasure and steward my marriage will tell you how much my life is impacted by the Gospel, how much I’ve understood the Love and affection of Christ for His bride.

If I’m stewarding my marriage in an unhealthy manner, where I’m failing to exercise love and forgiveness towards my wife than it is evident that I’ve really not understood the Gospel, especially the love and forgiveness of Christ.

Similarly, Art & Music are good endeavours, but unless it is inspired by the Gospel, with a deeper understanding of God love and his power displayed through his son Jesus, and with the motive to glorify the giver of gifts, it can turn into a breeding ground for pride, depression & brokenness.

This morning as you leave this room, I don’t want us to go thinking, I’m now going to work hard, apply wisdom and do something for Jesus. No, I want you to leave the room saying I’m going to fall deeper in love with Jesus, draw inspiration from Jesus, from his expressions of love, forgiveness and grace.

May it be that our hard work and application of wisdom be the outcome of the impact of the Gospel, only then we will be able to fully and faithfully steward our time, talents and treasures given to us in a manner that it glorifies God, just like the two faithful servants in the parable.

Lets Pray!

Categories
John Sermon

Loving Obedience – John 14:15

As a church, we’ve been going through a series titled “Gospel Renewal”. The topics that we’ve covered so for this series are as follows:

In fact, all of these topics are probably taught in our moral science classes & certainly in other religions. But what’s the difference here? While in all the other cases, people teach and talk about how we need to do so many things to achieve a prayerful life or a humble life or a satisfied life.

In contrast, what we’re saying is that the good news of Jesus in fact empowers & enables us to do all of these things!

And continuing in this series we have a wonderful theme this week called “Gospel Obedience”. I’m presuming that some of you as soon as you heard this…you were like “it’s going to be another sermon on how I need to do this and that and then by the end I realize how I fail to do all of those things”.

And I just want to let you know that I understand that sentiment. I remember a few years at a camp that I attended, the speaker spoke on obedience and the title of his message was “the thrill of obedience”.

And I remember being a little taken off guard by the title because I never thought obedience as something thrilling or enjoyable or something to look forward to. And that happens because of some baggage that we carry with us.

We view God as a Rule-book keeper

All of us have had a strict teacher at school or a headmaster or a parent or a pastor –  and we sometimes think of God as being like that – Like a very strict headmaster who is making a list of all our moments of obedience and disobedience and waiting to punish us for every mistake that we make.

And although God is Just and Righteous in everything, but He’s not like the Headmaster that we think He is.

We see ourselves fail to keep up with the rules

The other reason why a topic like obedience could be discouraging for us is because we know how we fail in our attempts to obey God’s Word. Some days might be good in our performance – I read the Bible today, I had no arguments with people today, I completed my daily work on time and I even managed to share the gospel with one person.

But then there are quite a few other days where we don’t do any of them and then suddenly, we realize that we cannot keep up with the performance.  We keep missing the mark. We keep falling and failing. And we keep looking up at the “headmaster” wondering how angry he is.

Has anyone ever been there? That’s why I think today’s sermon is going to be important because it’s going address our baggage that we’re carrying and also push us forward to gospel obedience.

Our main text passage is from John 14:15:

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

If you notice it doesn’t say – if you go to church, you will keep my commandments. Or if you read your Bible, you will keep my commandments.

What does it say? If you “LOVE” me, you will keep my commandments. Love for Jesus is the motivation for obedience!

We express our LOVE for Jesus by keeping His commands. So the real question is do we truly love Jesus? That’s the real question.

Let’s begin changing the way we ask ourselves questions about our obedience. Obedience is not about Do’s and Don’ts but it’s about loving Jesus. Do we love Him? What does it mean to love Jesus? How can I love Jesus?

1. Loving obedience is always a response to God’s love

19 We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

Our love for God is always a response to His love for us! When we obey God, it’s not to do Him a favor neither is it a way of us to receive favor from Him. Gospel obedience is the result of a deeply thankful heart for what Christ has done for us!

Tim Keller mentions there are two types of obedience:

Religious: I obey, therefore I am loved and accepted by God

Days when I read my Bible and I try to live a good, spiritual life and I’m active in the church and that’s why I think God loves and accepts me. Days when I’m not able to live a good, spiritual life – those days I’m fearful and insecure. My spiritual performance determines God’s relationship with me.

Gospel: I am loved and accepted by God in Jesus, therefore I obey

God has loved me infinitely through His Son Jesus and He accepts me wholly as His child. His love and acceptance doesn’t change based on my spiritual performance but on His Son’s perfect life.

Because God’s love and mercy is sooo great….because the worth of His sacrifice is immeasurable – I want to joyfully serve Him in obedience.

A few years back when I was in full time ministry, I remember getting really discouraged after doing 9 months of ministry. 3 times a week I would go to different business parks around Mumbai trying to share the gospel with different people.

And even though some people would initially show positive response but after 9 months no one believed and I found no seekers as well. Plus I would go for all these conferences where people would come and say that they planted many churches in year and I would think “it’ll be good if at least 1 or 2 people believed in my case”.

And I remember feeling very insecure because I wasn’t sure if God was pleased with my ministry. Maybe I was doing something wrong. And I was talking to this one pastor friend of mine who said this “There’s nothing more you can do for God to love you more, and there’s nothing less you can do for God to love you any less.

He loves & accepts you fully and completely in Christ Jesus”. And a weight of pressure and condemnation just left me. In fact that day…a new freeing joy entered my heart to share the gospel! Not because I wanted to gain acceptance from God but because I’m already accepted in Christ.

This is different from antinomianism which means “God loves and accepts me for who I am so it allows me to do whatever I want to do”. No, that’s heresy.

God’s love and His acceptance in Christ – humbles me and makes me want to joyfully, willingly obey Him. I hope you understand this very key point on obedience.

We obey from love not for love! We obey from acceptance not for acceptance!

Not only is Loving obedience a response to God’s love but

2. Loving obedience is always whole-hearted

 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Matt 22:37)

It’s not partial obedience like 50% or 80% or not even 90% but loving obedience toward God is 100%. It’s all or nothing. I’m sure some of us might be thinking “I’ve heard this verse numerous times but what does loving God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength actually mean?” I think it could mean two things:  

  • Delight in God:

Have you ever thought of delighting and enjoying God? For some of us it sounds like a strange thing because we think of God as the “rule book keeper” and we never think about God as someone we would be enthralled and delighted in! I remember when I was in my teens how me and one of my friends from school would end up watching full 5-day test matches.

Sometimes when these matches would be played in New Zealand and Australia, I would also wake up early in the morning to watch it. And this was during regular school days! Quite crazy but at that time I enjoyed watching cricket! It didn’t seem burdensome or tiring to me. 

And now when I think about this – it was for something of very little value (sports and entertainment)…how much more should I delight in the One who Created me and Redeemed me from my sin? He wants us to enjoy our relationship with Him.

As we grow in our understanding of what Jesus has done for us, as the beauty and radiance of Jesus becomes brighter to us, as we see God answering our prayers, as we see God use us to minister to our brothers and sisters, and as we see ourselves looking more and more like Jesus everyday – God’s desire is for that to thrill our hearts and our minds.

God’s desire is for us to be in awe – and realize that we are in a relationship with an amazing God! God doesn’t desire begrudging obedience – that doesn’t bring Him any glory…what He desires is delightful obedience.

  • Not Delayed

Have you ever thought of Delayed obedience as disobedience? I realized this some years back as I was having a conversation with my brother in Christ. At that point I was 8 years into the faith but still not baptized. This brother asked me what my thought was about baptism?

And I explained how I believed in believer’s baptism but wasn’t sure if the time was right. Maybe I would want to do it sometime in the future. That’s when he told me this – “Delayed obedience is disobedience” and it just made sense and convicted my heart immediately. Similarly, I want to challenge you which ever area God is calling you to right now in obedience, what would it mean for you to obey right now?

What would it mean for you to not delay? To not give this excuse or that reason but actually obey God. In some cases I know it might be painful or hard, but would you obey God no matter how difficult the cost?

Not only is loving obedience a response to God’s love & wholehearted but :

3.  Loving obedience is always self-sacrificial

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments (1 John 5:2)

For me this was a little strange verse initially because I kept thinking what’s the relationship between loving the children of God and my obedience? The two things seem separate and contrasting.

How is my obedience or disobedience related to loving someone else? Well, that’s the biggest myth we need to put out. Our personal obedience is not just between us and God. Our obedience/disobedience is always affecting other people- our families, our church and the people we interact with on a daily basis.

Let’s say for example I’m harboring unforgiveness against someone else. I know I need to repent & reconcile but I’m disobedient, what happens? I’ll keep a distance from the church. I’ll try to be isolated. But am I truly being loving?

No, I’m actually withholding the church members from receiving my gifts, my encouragement, my comfort and service that God has given me. So my disobedience is actually not just grieving the heart of God, and affecting the other person but also the whole church. This is just one example.

Similarly, what the area in your life where God is calling you to obey Him self-sacrificially? You know that your disobedience is not just affecting your relationship with God but also the other people that are doing life with you.

In the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the fruit – with that one act of disobedience idolatry, adultery, immorality, murder, theft, lies and every other kind of sin and wickedness flowed into their hearts.

And with that the guilt and shame associated with disobedience.  And we all were born with that very same nature of disobedience. But when Jesus Christ the Son of God came to the earth, unlike us he did not have that nature and lived a perfect life of obedience.

And through His death and resurrection – he paid for our lifetime of disobedience once for all and not just that but reversed and began the restoration process for us who believe so that one day when He returns we will be like Him perfectly obedient to God – not out of our will or efforts but totally by the grace of God. So let that encourage our hearts today – if we have repented of our sins & truly trusted in the finished work of Jesus, then where we are today is not where we will be when He returns.

He will fully and completely finish the work of reversal and restoration that He began at the cross. Let that be our hope. Amen!

Categories
Matthew Sermon

Finding True Satisfaction – Matthew 13:44-46

Today’s sermon is part of a series called ‘Gospel Renewal’. Through these sermon series, we are discovering how to consistently live all of life under the influence of the gospel.

So far, we’ve covered topics on Prayer, Humility, Repentance & Dependence. Today we will look into the topic of ‘Gospel Satisfaction’ – In this broken world, how can we live a truly satisfied Life. And our passage for today is Matt 13:44-46.

To begin with, let’s ask ourselves “How many of us don’t want to live a satisfied life?” – None, right. Which means every one of us wants to live a satisfied life.

Last week as I was thinking about our topic today on ‘Satisfaction’, I asked a couple of people at my home and office from different age groups “What is it that you expect to happen in your life that you think will give you ultimate satisfaction?”

Here are some of the answers I received:

I will be fully satisfied in life…

• When all my debt is clear
• When I get my dream job
• When the conflicts in my home will be fully resolved
• When I get a dog (answer by a 10-year-old)
• When I am healed of my sickness
• When I have a good enough bank balance

Here are a couple of things I learnt when I heard these answers

  • We all tend to look for satisfaction in the fleeting pleasures and things of this world.
  • At different junctures in life, these desires keep changing. It never ends.
  • If we genuinely evaluate, there is nothing of this world that can give permanent satisfaction in life, even on our death bed, we will be discontent with something we never got to enjoy.
  • The sad reality – Unknowingly, we are spending all our lives wasting our energy chasing after things that were never meant to give us true satisfaction.

If these things are not meant to give us true satisfaction, what is it that gives us true satisfaction? To discover that, let’s look at our passage today and find the answer – Matt 13:44-46

“The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

First of all, we have to note that the passage is a parable and not a direct command. And therefore, we have to understand the principle behind the parable and not to take it literally.

Jesus is telling us the parable about a man who finds such satisfaction in what he found, that he went and sold everything he had to own it.

True satisfaction in life comes when we find and chase after the one thing that’s of great value.

What is that one thing that the man in this parable finds of great value? – The Kingdom of God.

In Matthew 6:33, Jesus said “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you”

Jesus is saying, instead of running after all these things in life that you think will give you real satisfaction. I’m saying first seek the Kingdom, and all other things shall be added unto you.

To chase after the Kingdom of God should be of primary importance, then chasing after the things of the world. 1 John 2:17 says “the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” Isn’t it true?

The picture painted in the parable is of a man who is running after the right thing and is fully satisfied.

Now, what is the Kingdom of God?

The Kingdom of God is God’s redemptive work through his son Jesus Christ in the world, resulting in people being in right relationship with himself. The Kingdom of God is the big picture of what God is doing in this world.

Which means to seek and chase after the Kingdom of God, is to walk in right relationship with God and to participate in God’s glorious work in this world.

If you are someone who’s hearing such a message for the first time, having a troubled life, without peace, without joy… You need to know that unless we walk into a right relationship with our creator God, we will never find true satisfaction. What you need right now is not a temporary solution to your temporary problem but a permanent solution that will set you free forever.

The answer to all our temporary problems is one permanent solution – Restored relationship with our creator God.

Bible says, Our sins have separated us from God, the reason the world is dark, broken, lost is because we are separated from God who created us for this glory. Instead of worshipping and adoring him, we end up worshipping the created things of this world. Idols, money, fame, pleasures.

And none of them is capable of giving us the true satisfaction our soul is seeking.

Money is not the solution to our problem. If it was money, then all the rich people in this world should have been the happiest people in the world, and that is absolutely not true.

Yes, money can give temporary relief, but it will never satisfy our souls, that craves for love and acceptance.

No matter how hard we try to mend the broken relationship with our creator God on our own, we will never be able to accomplish it on our own. Unless we are purified of our sins, we will never be able to relate with God, unless we’ve paid the penalty of our sins that satisfies God’s Holy wrath and anger on us we will never be able to mend the broken relationship.

And our human efforts can never satisfy God’s Holy anger.

The beautiful thing is, more than our cravings for a relationship with God, God craves, even more, to be with us.

The Bible says that God himself sent His son Jesus for us, to live the perfect life we were supposed to live, offered himself as a perfect sacrifice for the atonement of our sins, pay for our mistakes, die on the cross and satisfy God’s wrath on our behalf, to kill the power of sin in our lives. And rose again from the dead, seated in heaven, praying for us.

And so as we repent of our sins and receive Jesus as our Lord, believe in his name, he gives the right to become children of God.

True satisfaction comes when we realize how precious is this gift from God, and therefore, willing to give away anything that holds us back from receiving this gift.

“the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Brother & sisters, it is not easy to go against the world when they say money is the answer to all problems, it not easy to go against the world when they say following family traditions and values is important, and that we have to follow them without questioning blindly.

It is not easy to drop all our idols, let go of all our dreams, count the things of the world rubbish and follow the footsteps of Jesus. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” – In other words, we cannot fully receive the Kingdom of God unless we are willing to pay the price.

The man in the parable, when he finds the Kingdom, he hides it back realizing how precious it is, goes back and sells everything he has, pays the price, and buys the land – and is fully satisfied in doing so.

To those who’ve received the Kingdom of God in their hearts. Here are two things I want to say, to help us treasure what we’ve received and to continue finding your satisfaction in it.

1. We have to order our lives around the Kingdom of God

Even after receiving the Kingdom of God in our hearts, as we continue to live in this world, among all the dark forces, the result-oriented bosses at work, the nagging family members at home, still seeking specific answers to our prayer. It is so easy for us to slip away and go back to find our satisfaction in the world.

To order our lives around the Kingdom of God is to make ‘Intimacy with Jesus’ the ultimate goal of our lives. Which means we should always be willing to let go of anyone or anything so that you grow in intimacy with Jesus.

  • Whether its an ungodly relationship that takes all our energy away and weakens us from enjoying intimacy with Jesus.
  • Whether it’s our job that doesn’t allow us time to enjoy intimacy with Jesus.
  • Whether a business that takes most of our focus away from enjoying intimacy with Jesus.
  • Whether the wealth that is stopping us from enjoying intimacy with Jesus.

Like the rich young ruler who wanted to know how to inherit eternal life. When Jesus knowing his heart idols, asked him to go and sell all that he has, give to the poor and follow him. Was unwilling to do so and went back sorrowful.

Jesus said, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

The key to continuing living a satisfied life for all those who believe, is to order our life around the Kingdom of God, to find our satisfaction in our relationship with Christ.

2. Dedicate all of life for the expansion of the Kingdom of God

As we enjoy our relationship with Christ, fully satisfied in Him. He then calls us to participate with Him in his Kingdom work.

It’s a privilege for us to be called to participate in His work. By serving God and his people, we’re not doing a favour on God. But, in fact, God is doing a favour on us.

By allowing us to participate in his Kingdom work, he is giving us more opportunities to be satisfied in life.

Personally, as a family, to be serving God and to serve you with our time, energy and efforts, even thought it gets tiring, and exhaustive. By the end of the day when we sit down and reflect on all that God is doing in and through our lives, there is such joy and satisfaction in our hearts. I sometimes cry.

Yes, we have to look after our families, work hard to survive, but unless our primary pursuit in life is to participate in the expansion of the Kingdom of God, we are still lacking sometimes precious in life.

As I conclude, let us all first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness that comes through repentance and belief in Jesus, and He will surely satisfy our soul with all good things in life, that is meant to bring true joy and happiness.

Categories
Genesis Sermon

Gospel Dependence – Genesis 15

As a church, we’ve been going through a series called “Gospel Renewal”. Our conviction is that unless the gospel changes our hearts, we will never be able to produce true and lasting fruit –be it in prayer, humility, repentance – all our efforts will render meaningless unless it’s fueled by the love of God. 

This week’s theme is “Gospel Dependence” or “Gospel trust”! What does it mean to depend on God? Can we trust God apart from the gospel? These are some of the questions we will look to answer as we look at Genesis 15.

The background of this story is that God has called a man called Abram out of his land, his extended family and commanded him to go to a place called Canaan and promised him that many nations would come through him, and all the families of the earth would be blessed through him and this place called Canaan would become an inheritance for him and his descendants! Wow.

That’s such a wonderful promise. However, there is one problem – he & his wife are well aged in years and they don’t have any children. Can this promise be fulfilled? Let’s read in Genesis 15. (read here)

Trust No one! That’s one recurring theme I’ve noticed people say a lot in this city. People find it hard to trust others.

Be it with the rickshaw driver, or vegetable vendor or anyone who provides some kind of service to you, or even the people who work with you – people don’t trust each other quickly and they always feel like that everyone’s out to cheat them.

Somehow I feel that this issue of trust also flows into our relationship with God. Often we ask “How can I trust God in my struggles, my pain and my circumstances? How do I know He is really concerned? How do I know that His plans are for my good?”

Even though we know these are easier topics to talk about on Sunday…deep down we know how we struggle to depend on God during the week. So what encouragement is offered to us from this passage?

I think it tells us of two things:

1.Gospel dependence is always rooted in God’s Word (v5-6)

5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

This passage starts off with God telling Abram that God is His shield and that His reward will be very great! This time Abram responds by telling God – sort of like complaining “God what will you give me, for I continue to be childless”.

What we need to understand is that in the ancient world barrenness was considered to be a curse or a punishment from God.  On top of that, there was the shame in society that families felt from others when they were barren.

You can imagine the emotional pressure that Abram felt at that point. And we can see at least 3 barriers that Abram had to overcome in order to depend on God:

  1. Physical barrier: Both he and Sarah were well advanced in their age. Probably around 80 at this point of time. We know how it’s physically impossible to give birth at such an old age.
  3. Rational barrier: Because they didn’t have any children, the only logical heir he could have is his servant Eliezer – probably a faithful servant in his household. In Abram’s mind he probably was thinking – if God wants to fulfill that promise of bringing out nations, it will now need to happen through Eliezer.
  4. Time barrier: Already enough and more time has passed. He was growing impatient probably saying “how long, Lord”? “God, please answer now….I’ve waited for a long time”.

If Abram considered all of these barriers, it would’ve made it really difficult for him to trust and depend on God. But what does God do? God tells him that Eliezer won’t be the heir…his own offspring would the heir.

God brings him outside and shows him the stars in the sky and asks them if he’s able to count them. And God says that many descendants will come from him. And then in v6 it says “Abram believed the Lord”. What? That’s it? God said this and Abram believed? How?

Because it was not an ordinary person’s word but God’s Word! It wasn’t just someone’s optimistic encouragement but God’s Word.

  1. He had to trust in the truthfulness of God’s Word – God who never lies (Titus 1:2)
  2. He had to trust in the ability of God to do what He said –

He believed God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.  (Rom 4:17)

20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”  (Rom 4:20-22)

God’s Word is synonymous with His character. God’s Word is a means of grace given to us so that we can trust God. (Faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God [Rom 10:17])

In all this what I’m trying to say is that the word of God is so very essential for us to depend on God. You cannot depend on God apart from God’s Word. Why? Because God’s Word reveals God’s truthfulness and His ability to do what He has promised.

Sometimes when we are struggling with habitual sin, or when we’ve been praying to God for a specific issue – it could be physical healing or godly spouse or a job and haven’t received an answer yet – because I know my own heart I know others can have the same tendency – we tend to go into a shell and stay away from God’s Word.

We want to stay away from reading the Bible. We want to stay away from the church. We want to stay away from the preaching of God’s Word. We just want our space.

And even though all our feelings tell us that’s what we need to do, I just want to encourage you all and remind you that what you need the most is God’s Word. You need to know that God is truthful and that He doesn’t lie.

You need to know that God is more powerful than the circumstance or the sin that you’re going through. 

  • Gospel Dependence is held by God’s faithfulness (v18-21)

It’s not enough to know that God’s Word is true and that He is able to do what He said, but also to know that He is faithful no matter what. 

Right after Abram believes the Lord’s Word, God tells him that the land of Canaan will be given to Abram to possess. Abram asks God “how can he know that he’ll possess it”?

God tells him to get some animals and cut them in half and some birds. Abram did that and then fell into a deep sleep where he sees a vision. In that vision, God tells him that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign country for 400 years and after that God will bring them back to this Promise Land.

And God sends down fire and that passes between the animal pieces symbolizing His covenant with Abram.

What’s important to know is God is absolutely serious about keeping His commitment. God didn’t say – “okay, it’s going to take 400 years…Abram won’t be alive until then so it doesn’t matter”.

Neither did God think “the Israelites in 400 years are going to be extremely rebellious and sinful, they don’t deserve my commitment”. In fact, this was an unconditional covenant with Abram.

God made this covenant and He did it by passing through the pieces which meant that if God didn’t keep His commitment, then what happened to the cut animals will happen to Him! Wow! Our faith is held by God’s faithfulness.

God’s faithfulness was perfectly displayed on the cross. The willingness of our loving Savior Jesus to take on the punishment for our sins and absorb the wrath of God on our behalf – and go through with it is mind-blowing!

Because that was the only way we could have a relationship with God. He didn’t bail on us and neither did He leave us to die. He came after us even if it costed Him His life. Our faith is held by God’s faithfulness.

When we waver in our dependence on God when we fail in our personal holiness – what’s our hope? Is it to do better next time? Is it to manufacture new faith?

No! It’s God’s faithfulness toward us. I’m not saying that God’s faithfulness should be used as an excuse for sin. But I’m saying if you’ve truly understood God’s faithfulness, that will cause you to turn away from sin and turn towards God.

I remember brother Saju once shared a story with me about a pastor of a church. This pastor had a wayward daughter and even though he was a pastor of the church for many years, he thought it was proper for him to step down from his role for some time and focus on his family.

Every night his daughter would come back late after parties, and this pastor would wait up for her – look at her and say that he loves her. Every night. Finally one day this daughter repented and came to know the Lord.

And in her testimony, she said that it was actually the faithfulness of her father despite all the things she did wrong that helped her understand the gospel and come to know Christ.

When I fail in my faith, I need to know that God’s faithfulness holds me. I need to know 1 John 1:9 – if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us from all unrighteousness. I need to know that God’s faithfulness will come through for me.

Lastly, I just want to mention one thing before we close – if today a prosperity preacher would preach this passage, he would say that God’s faithfulness means giving me everything that I want.

If you don’t have everything you want in health and wealth – then you probably don’t have enough faith yet. We know that’s not the teaching of Scripture but how are we to respond to God biblically on issues that we’ve been praying for a long period of time?

Yes, we persistently pray about this and come back to God again and again. We tell God how what we’re asking isn’t coming from selfish motives to spend on ourselves. But then we also surrender the answer and trust that if God by withholding this answer from us it bring Him more glory, then we want to submit to His will.

Because our lives are about Him and His glory and not ours. God can use our strength and our weakness. God can use our plenty and our lack. And that’s also gospel dependence – trusting God to do what is best for His glory!