Revolutionary Joy... in temptation February 23 and 24, 2019 First UMC Carroll

The weather forced us to cancel services on site this weekend.  We broadcast on facebook. 

Temptation is as old as time. Adam and Eve faced temptation and they didn’t do so well.

Jesus faced temptation and won (but he was a special case)

Paul faced temptation. Think about his life; all the hardships from beatings to shipwrecks, to hunger. How tempting would it have been sometimes to just throw up his arms and walk away. Don’t forget that Paul was a pastor. You know two of the greatest temptations as a pastor? They are pride and discouragement and they go hand in hand. One moment we think, “Everyone should think this is am important as I do, just because I am the pastor and I say so.” And the next moment is “No one cares about this. Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I’ll go eat worms.” Now you know the tug of war in my head. If they are honest, every pastor is sandwiched between those two temptations and I’m pretty sure Paul was no different. He faced temptation too.

And we have talked about the conflict in the Philippian church. You know how you react to conflict. Some people are tempted to jump in there and fight even if they are wrong. Others are tempted to turn tail and run, even if they are right. And the Philippians were just human. They faced the same kinds of temptations as we do; from materialism, to alcohol abuse; from lying to stealing; from overeating to laziness. They were tempted just as we are.

 Let’s just be honest. We all face temptation. Mine are likely different than yours. Maybe for you it is chocolate cake, maybe a wondering eye, maybe “borrowing” something that isn’t yours, being judgmental, speaking evil, alcohol, racism, looking at things you shouldn’t look at; going to places you shouldn’t go, to associate with people who aren’t good for you.

We all have temptations and they are not fun. When I talk about joy in temptation I’m not saying that we ought to seek out temptation. I’m not saying that we ought to celebrate temptation. Nor am I saying that temptation is fun.

Strangely enough, though, Paul does find a reason for Joy in temptation.

I know, right now your greatest temptation might be to say, “The pastor has gone crazy!” But please fight that one off until I explain myself, OK?

Let’s look at the text for today.

  Therefore, let’s stop right there. This passage is connected to the preceding passage that we we talked about last week. Remember, Jesus humbled himself and God exalted him for our salvation.

THEREFORE, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence. Up to this point, Paul says, I have been able to guide you in how to live your new faith. He knows he will not be able to do that for long, however.

He continues,  now you will have to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

There might be different ways to understand this, but I think Paul is saying that salvation is a gift from Jesus. Discipleship is figuring out how to live into that gift. And the Philippians will have start doing discipleship on their own.

Becoming a Christian does it come with an instruction book. No. Ultimately, for good or for bad, we are responsible for living out our new life in God.

So far this is not anything to be joyful about is it. Essentially Paul is saying, “soon you will have to do this without me!” But wait. Paul continues.

For it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Aha. There’s the joy! This is the good news here.

We work out our own salvation, but God is working in us.

This is called sanctification. SANCTUS is the Latin work for holy, so sanctification is “holification” or making us more and more like Jesus.

 God’s work doesn’t stop with forgiving your sin. God does not abandon you. God is at work in you transforming you. God is at work in you making you better than you were. Hopefully better today than yesterday. Hopefully more like God next week than you are this week. God is at work in you. And taking it one step further, God is at work “enabling you to both to will and work for his good pleasure.”

God is working to change your will or desires. And

God is working to change your work or your actions.

God is working on both the temptation and your resistance to temptation to make you more like Jesus each and every day.

God is working to take away the power and the danger of temptation.

Why is that so exciting? Because all of that is for God’s good pleasure!

Because every time you win over temptation, saying “NO.” God wins a victory making you a little more like Jesus.

Every time you struggle with temptation and ultimately say, “I’m not going to do that.” God wins a victory making you look a little more like Jesus that day.

Every time you don’t pick up the bottle, every time you don’t look at that person or those pictures, every time you don’t lie, every time you don’t get discouraged or don’t beat yourself up, or don’t hold a grudge. God wins a victory making you more and more like Jesus.

That is worth an AMEN isn’t it? That is worth some celebration! That is where the joy comes in. Not because you were tempted, but because God is working in you to win victory over temptation.

Let’s jump to James and we see the same thing.

   No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it.

           OK? Got that the same message as Philippians. God offers salvation, but we still must struggle with temptation.

Then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived, my beloved.

 Do not be deceived. Temptation is not the sin. It is when we act on the temptation or cave in to the temptation that we sin. And that is not OK.

The good news is that, God is working in us to give us power over temptation and therefore over sin.

  James writes, every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.

           That’s sanctification. Every time we win against temptation it is a gift coming from God. Every time we win against temptation we participate in the fulfillment of God’s purpose of making us more and more like Jesus. Praise God! That is worth some joy.

          

  I will be the first to admit that we don’t always win over temptation. Things don’t always go our way. Paul, in fact, is sitting on death row and he says if I get out of here I rejoice. “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.” If this doesn’t work out the way I hope I still “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.” Paul rejoices in the Philippians and their becoming more like Jesus. “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice” Paul says, win or lose, rejoice! Resist temptation or fall flat on our face, rejoice! God is at work in you whether you blow the temptation off like a feather, or wrestle it in a cage match to the death. Rejoice because God is at work in you to make you more and more like Jesus so “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice”.

Does that make sense? Do you still think I am crazy talking about joy in temptation?

Do you see how wrestling with temptation can actually be a joyful thing? It brings to light the victory that God is winning in us. Day by day, temptation by temptation we are becoming more and more like Jesus.

Occasionally we hear a story about an alcoholic who finds Jesus and is never tempted to take another drink. Occasionally we hear a story about a person who is immediately and miraculously freed from the bonds of some troubling compulsion or habit the day they meet Jesus. I pray that a beautiful thing like that happens to each of us.

But usually the process longer. Usually the process of sanctification is slower. Usually the work of making us holy is more difficult, but just a beautiful. And along the way while God is making you more beautiful “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice”.

So, I leave you with Paul’s words of beautiful encouragement from the message version of Philippians.

  Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof … of God’s power in you and the world.

Revolutionary Joy in humility February 17, 2019 Carroll FUMC

Revolutionary Joy in humility

February 17, 2019

Carroll FUMC

 Oh Lord it's hard to be humble (sing with me)
When you're perfect in every way
I can't wait to look in the mirror
Cause I get better looking each day

 To know me is to love me
I must be a heck of a man
Oh Lord It's hard to be humble,
But I'm doing the best that I can.[i]

I will say, for all my shortcomings, that is not one I struggle with. I have never been tempted to believe I am perfect in every way.” Far from it, my personal tendency is to dwell on my shortcomings and faults.

Pride comes in a lot of different and sometimes sneaky flavors.

The psychologist Tracy Robins distinguishes two types of pride. [ii] AUTHENTIC PRIDE represented in words like accomplished and confident. It is a positive characteristic in which we REALISTICALLY recognize our effort, hard work, and accomplishments as having value. It has to do with our self-esteem. There is nothing wrong with that. One of the keywords being REALISTIC. Humility stems from the Latin word “humus” meaning ground.  Humility is being grounded or having our self-image firmly planted on the ground. Authentic pride is not the opposite of humility. In fact, the realistic assessment of ourselves is part of humility. The opposite of authentic pride is hubristic pride.

 HUBRISTIC PRIDE is related to words like egotistical, bigheaded, conceited, vain, smug, and arrogant. Hubristic pride is an UNREALISTIC belief in the superiority of our talents, abilities and positive traits that make us SUPERIOR to other people. The key words being UNREALISTIC and SUPERIOR TO OTHERS. This hubristic pride is the opposite of humility.

Sadly, you may recognize hubristic pride in others, but it can be hard to see it in yourself. If you are not sure if you have hubristic pride, ask your spouse or best friend what they think. If you have trouble thinking of anyone besides yourself that is smart enough or good enough to answer your question…you may have hubristic pride.

There is another word we need to push off to the side.  Related to humility is HUMILIATION. Humility is not humiliation.  Humility is giving up our unrealistic pride of our own free will. It makes us better people. Humiliation, though, is having even our actual or realistic pride stripped from us involuntarily and unrealistically until we stand unfairly exposed for all the world to mock…

There are several flavors of hubristic pride.…

·        Self-reliance. Being too proud to accept help or charity even if you really need it.

·        Snobbishness. You know, people who have the attitude that says, “You are lucky I am not charging you money for the privilege of being in my presence, looser.”

·        Stubbornness. Being too stubborn to admit you are wrong or back down on an argument even when you know you are wrong. It is unrealistically believing that you can never be wrong.

·        Spite. When everyone knows you can’t do something, (and you know you can’t do something) but you stick to it just to try to prove them wrong.

·        High Expectations. (UNREALISTIC) When you throw away a chocolate cake you made for the family because it tastes great but isn’t quite the perfect shape you expect.

·        There is indignation, which says bad things can happen to other families, but they aren’t supposed to happen to me or my family.

·        Intellectual pride… if you know Sheldon Cooper Big Bang theory… that’s all I have to say.

·        Perfectionism you must deliver the perfect product that meets everyone’s expectations, so others don’t see how imperfect you think you really are.^[iii] I saved that one for last because I didn’t like it much.

Can I confess something without making you uncomfortable? I’ll confess, when I started preparing this week I thought I was pretty much in the clear. I didn’t think pride was one of the many sins with which I thought I struggled. But when I read about this flavor of pride called perfectionism I saw myself all over it. I was convicted that the workaholism with which I have struggled even when I was in high school (what some have perceived as a perfectionism) might really be a kind of pride. Could it be that I am too prideful to let others see my imperfections? Is it possible that I am so pridefully insecure that I feel like I have to work twice as hard just so no one knows that I don’t feel like I am as good as the next guy? It is a little twisted, but that is how pride works.

Can you see yourself in any of these? Can you see some way that you might be prideful without having realized it?

             

Turning to the book of Philippians, it is clear that they are dealing with some kind of conflict in the church. See if this sounds to you like Paul is lecturing the Philippians on pride.

“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ² make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³ Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴ Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” That kind of sounds like a lecture about pride to me.  

There may be another clue in chapter 4 verse 2

^“ 2 I urge Euodia (ye-od-ee-ah) and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. ³ Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

We can’t tell for sure what’s happening, between these two women but whatever competition or conflict they have sure sounds like pride.

·        Maybe relational pride like “I’m better than you because Paul likes me better.”

·        Maybe stubborn pride, Maybe Euodia (ye-od-ee-ah) says, “I’ll never admit that I am wrong because I am not playing second fiddle to that garbanzo bean, Scynthe”

·        Maybe intellectual pride, “step aside and let a real Christian tell you what Jesus meant.

Whatever the cause or flavor, it sure seems that the church at Philippi was infected with the sin of pride because Paul lectures them about humility.

If there is any Jesus in you, any love, any spirit, any compassion, any sympathy…make my joy complete by “regarding others as better then yourselves.”

As an aside, That is not the way I would define humility. Rather than “regard others as better than yourselves.” I would say “Do not think of yourselves as better than others.” “Do not think of yourselves as better than others…” neither puffing yourself up nor tearing them down. Making them smaller doesn’t make you bigger. But being in Jesus, in love, in spirit, in compassion, and in sympathy makes our joy complete.  

 When Jesus is teaching that there is “no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend,” in other words to get outside our own pride and humbly offer ourselves to others he says, “I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” [iv]Being trapped in protecting our pride is joyless… but Jesus says his joy is in us and our joy is complete when we give up the petty ego or pride games.

No one likes to be around conflict, especially when it is born out of two competing egos. Being together in Christ without prideful competition makes Jesus’ joy, Paul’s joy, and our joy complete.

 Paul knew about humility. He had to leave his pride behind at his conversion. Paul was the great persecutor of Christians, gladly killing the Jesus following scum at every opportunity because he as a Pharisee had a corner on the truth. Suddenly Paul was knocked off his horse, blinded and the Jesus whom he persecuted was calling him to work for the other side. He emptied himself of his pride and his hatred and became a humble evangelist for Jesus. And he says, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.”

Paul knew humility; stripped, beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked and all the other suffering I mentioned last week yet he counts it all Joy because it was for Jesus.

Paul knew humility, even while he was in prison, others carried on the gospel and for that he was joyful.

If you want to look beyond Paul to the perfect example of humility, look at what Paul wrote in Chapter 2 of Philippians.

⁵ Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,⁷ but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form ⁸he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.

Wow, perfect humility.

Think about it. Jesus Christ was the pre-existent, all creating, ground of being, all knowing, all present, all powerful God, King of all that there is. Clearly God is without any doubt, better than all of us added together.  God is perfect…Jesus is perfect…  yet Jesus is also perfectly humble.

Notice there is no humiliation here.  Jesus did it voluntarily. He emptied himself of that. He EMPTIED himself. Poured himself out. Left divinity behind to became incarnate… literally “with meat” … God with meat on. Talk of humility… becoming one of us… a baby who needs diapers changed… a child subject to the discipline of the parents. An adult who actually feels pain, struggles with right and wrong, and ultimately experiences death.

And listen to the soaring heights of joy about which Paul writes.  God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Is there a more glorious or joyous passage in all of scripture? I don’t think so.

·        In God’s kingdom economy pride begets trouble, but humility begets joy in heaven.

·        In God’s kingdom economy there is great joy in heaven over a humble disciple pouring himself or herself out for another person.

·        In God’s kingdom economy there is no place for humiliation but in humbly pouring oneself out for the sake of another is the most joyful thing we can do.

We sit here in various degrees of pride and every bone of our body wants to hang on to that. Every instinct we have says that if we give up our pride our fragile egos will just crumble. Every little voice inside of us is saying, “don’t do it. It is too risky”

Every voice inside of us says don’t do it, except one.

Every voice inside of us says don’t do it, except the voice of Christ which says empty yourself and humbly follow me.

Every voice inside of us says don’t do it, except the voice of Christ which says you must give up your life in old to gain life in the kingdom.

Every voice inside of us says don’t do it, except the voice of Christ which says If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 

Every voice inside of us says don’t do it, except the one who taught “Blessed are the pour in spirit… blessed are the meek.”

Every voice inside of us says don’t do it, except the one who said, “do not take the most honored place at the table but take the lowest seat.”

Every voice inside of us says don’t do it, except the one who said, “the first shall be last and the last shall be first.”

Every voice inside of us says don’t do it, except the one who said, “Let the little children come to me.”

Every voice inside of us says don’t do it, except the one who spoke to the lepers, the foreigners, the slaves, and the prostitutes.

Every voice inside of us says don’t do it, except THE ONE THAT COUNTS… JESUS.

There is great joy in humility.

You know what… I could stand up here on my safe comfortable chancel area and tell you to be humble.  Or I can step down of my pedestal, empty myself and show humility.

I need three people willing to demonstrate humility with me.

---------------Wash 3 people’s feet.----------------

After I have washed one person  

After he washed their feet, Jesus said “Do you realize what I have done to you? If I have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

After I have washed the second person start the loop

How can you humbly pour yourself out for others? Watch for a few ideas on the screen to get you started.

Go find joy in being a humble servant of Jesus.

 

 

Admit that you might not be the best in everything.

 Recognize your faults.

Be grateful, not boastful for what you have.

When you are wrong, admit it.

Avoid bragging.

While having a conversation, be more considerate.

Appreciate others.

---

[i] Mac Davis 1974

[ii] Tracy, J.L., Robins, R.W.: Show your pride: Evidence for a discrete emotion expression. Psychological Science 15, 194–197 (2004)

[iii] Inspired by  https://herculodge.typepad.com/herculodge/2011/07/the-8-types-of-pride.html

[iv] John 15:11

Revolutionary joy in the face of suffering February 10, 2019

Revolutionary joy in the face of suffering

February 10, 2019

I have kind of a natural aversion to suffering.  I’m pretty sure you do too. None of us seeks out pain, or sorrow, or misery, or suffering. But none of us can avoid it either, can we?

We all suffer. Now it seems to me that some folks suffer more than others, I guess some of us are just more fortunate than others.

Others suffer cancer. Jessica Melore suffered a massive heart attack, heart transplant, and leg amputation by the time she was 16 years old. Then there was a lump on her neck and she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.  She fought that to remission with chemotherapy and radiation.  6 years later another lump appeared and she found herself fighting for her life again.

Kechi Okwuchi is a Nigerian woman who at the age of 13 was one of two survivors out of 109 passengers in a plane crash, but she suffered massive burns over most of her body. She has undergone over 100 surgeries repairing the burn damage.

Rev. Richard Wurmbrand was jailed for 14 years for speaking out for his faith. He was beaten on the feet daily until his feet were permanently damaged.  He was tortured, beaten, starved, and his family was threatened. His wife was sent to a work camp where she hauled rock in the icy cold with no shoes. He and his wife both were taken away from their children and it was illegal to provide care for the children of prisoners. The whole family suffered because of their faith.

I am pretty sure that each of you has suffered in one way or another, to one degree or another, at one time or another in your life. Your suffering may exceed, or it may seem trivial compared to the suffering of these folks. But when you are the one in pain, or facing bankruptcy, or being abused, or addicted, or losing everything in a fire or tornado, or watching someone you love die, or experiencing chronic pain, or mental illness, or any other suffering… when it happens to you the pain is very real.

 Unfortunately, there has been a lot of bad teaching about suffering in the church.

Preachers have taught, “If you have enough faith you won’t suffer” WRONG! One preacher who taught this had the unfortunate experience of his wife being diagnosed with cancer. He had to choose between sticking with his “if you have faith you won’t get sick” teaching and supporting his wife.  He chose his teaching and publicly rebuked his wife for faithlessness.  Sometimes these bad teachings cause their own kind of unnecessary suffering.

Preachers have taught God causes suffering. NO. God doesn’t cause suffering. Some come as a consequence of our bad choices, other suffering – like tornadoes- is obviously completely random.

Others have taught that we suffer because God is powerless… or doesn’t care. NO. Suffering is not beyond God’s reach.  God will often redeem what is horrendous to bring something good from it, but God does not cause it. As Joseph said in Genesis, “What you intended for me was evil, but God used it for good and the saving of many lives.”

 So what is the Christian attitude toward suffering? There is a lot in the Bible about suffering.  1/3 of the Psalms are songs of lament where God’s people are groaning and languishing under suffering. There is a whole book of Laments we call surprisingly enough Lamentations. There is Jeremiah, and Jonah, and Job. 

This week, however, we are going to continue our study of Philippians and learn about suffering from the  Apostle Paul.

To understand Paul's credentials to speak about suffering let’s turn back to 2 Corinthians. Paul writes, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, fellow Christians of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.”  He goes on to say, “ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,   By great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger,… through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as imposters, and yet are true; as unknown, yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and not yet killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.”

Later Paul writes “ 24 Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. 28 And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.” 

On top of all that he talks about his thorn in the flesh that he has prayed 3 times for it to be relieved and it persists.

I don’t know about you, but I think Paul has some pretty good credentials to talk about suffering.

Now to the letter to the Philippians. Paul came to Philippi and started a church. It wasn’t easy. He was arrested and imprisoned and was miraculously released by an earthquake.

11 years later, 4 years after Paul had last been in Philippi, Paul now sits in a Roman jail awaiting execution. The Philippian church heard that their dear friend and pastor was facing the possibility of death So, they did what we do when someone needs help, they took a generous offering. They gave it to a trustworthy man, named Epaphroditus and they told him, “Go find Paul in prison. Tell him we love him, we care for him, we’re concerned for him. Give him this generous gift so that he can have food and whatever else that he needs, and bring back to us a report of how our pastor is doing.”

Along the way, Epaphroditus himself had become sick and was facing the possibility of his own death. God miraculously healed Epaphroditus. He was allowed to continue on his mission. He ended up finding Paul, giving him the generous gift from the Philippian Christians. And, in response, Paul sat down in his dirty jail cell and he wrote a letter with his own hand to the church at Philippi to his friends. That letter is Philippians.

Hearing all of that, is there anyone who can doubt that Philippians is written by a man who knew suffering?  He might not be the world’s foremost expert, but he is close.

So we read Paul’s words in chapter 1:12.“I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel.” 

Paul explains that because of his imprisonment the gospel is now known through the whole imperial guard. Those are the emperor’s personal guards.  In other words, he has taken advantage of the opportunity afforded him by having an elite roman guard chained to him 24 hours a day. It was intended that Paul couldn’t escape, but from Paul’s perspective the guard couldn’t escape either. So he shared the gospel with them.   One by one they came to know the gospel of Jesus and many accepted it for themselves.

Secondly, he writes that “some brothers have been made confident and bold by his imprisonment.”  He  explains that his imprisonment has given others courage to stand up for their faith. Perhaps they want to continue Paul’s work in his absence.

You see, Jesus is being proclaimed in a lot of ways to a lot of people either because of or in spite of Pau’s suffering and in that he rejoices… he has joy.

Down in verse 25 he says “whether I live or die I will continue in the joy of the faith.”

What Paul is doing here is showing us that there is a way of suffering as Christians so that our suffering is purposeful. Not that we seek out suffering… that would be some sort of mental illness.  But that we can suffer for nothing, or we can suffer in a way that God is glorified. Three are three aspects of purposeful suffering.

 First. When we suffer… we never suffer alone. Jesus suffered terribly for our sake. Hebrews tells us that Jesu said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” In Matthew Jesus said  “ Lo I am with you unto the end of the age” and Romans 8:38 says “"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."  You know that is a favorite of mine… but there is also Joshua 1 “Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”  With the presence and power of Jesus our savior and our mighty God, we never suffer alone.

 Second, when we suffer, (not if but when) We can look inward and see ourselves as victims or we can look outward and ask “what is God  going to do in me” in this time of suffering. How will God change me? How will this suffering help me to be more compassionate? How could this suffering help me to be more patient? How can this suffering help me to trust in God more fully? How can this suffering help me to rely on God more completely.  We can be victims wallowing in our self-pity, or we can become victors by allowing God to perform a mini resurrection in our lives.   Job Is an example of this. Job may have suffered as much as any person in history.  He rails against God for 37 chapters.  God lectures Job for 4 chapters, and it ends with Job recognizing his pride and is becoming humble before God. When we suffer we will be changed… the question is will we be changed into victims or victors transformed by the redeeming power of God in the midst of suffering.

   Finally, when we suffer we have 2 options. We can  say “I am in pain.” We can let that become our identity and use that an excuse to do all kinds of unloving things. Or we can say “I am in Christ” and look for ways to live out that identity in whatever the circumstances of our lives might be.  We can ask “how can I be witness? How can I encourage or inspire or teach someone else?”  You may have access to people you would have never met. You may have a story that inspires someone to action. You may have a spirit that oozes love and grace as a witness to what God has done in your life.  We can chose to let the suffering define us, or we can chose victory over suffering in the name of Jesus Christ.

Yes, there is suffering but there is also great joy is knowing that we are never alone.

Yes, there is suffering but there is also great rejoicing at the opportunity to draw nearer to God. 

Yes, there is suffering, but there is a whoop and a holler that comes from heaven someone rises out of suffering to make a witness to for God’s goodness.

 Remember Jessica Melore from the beginning of the sermon. Heart attack, heart transplant, an amputation and two bouts with cancer. She is now an internationally traveled motivational speaker and vice president of the Lymphoma and leukemia society. Her suffering has taught her so much about herself that it has given her the opportunity to be an inspiration and mentor to millions.

Kechi Okwuchi the plane crash survivor, you may recognize her as the girl with the golden voice who got the golden buzzer on Americas Got Talent. She is now (besides a beautiful vocalist) an inspirational speaker telling millions about the image of Godinside each of us that has nothing to do with how our skin looks.

Rev. Richard Wumbrand jailed for his faith founded Voice of the Martyrs now ministering to millions of Christians around the world who live under persecution. NO one will ever know how many lives have been changed for Christ because Richard found a way to use what could have been personally life destroying to be life giving to so many others.

            You see joy is not a feeling. When I talk about Joy in the midst of suffering I am not talking about feeling happy. I am talking about a way of living, not for ourselves, but for Christ who “for the JOY set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” There is no feeling that can even begin to compare to the joy of life in Christ. And there is no suffering that can take the joy of Christ away from us.

Joy #1 in loneliness First UMC Carroll 2/3/19

Joy #1 in loneliness

First UMC Carroll

2/3/19

When the police arrived, James Lee was slumped over in a telephone booth with a bullet through his head. He had sent his story in a plain manila envelope to a reporter who tipped off the police, but they were too late.

In his pocket they found a child’s crayon drawing, much folded and worn. On it was written, “Please leave in my coat pocket. I want to have it buried with me.” The drawing was signed in childish print by his daughter, Shirley Lee, who had perished in a fire just five months before.  He wrote to the reporter that there was no family to attend his daughter’s funeral, since Shirley’s mother had been dead for several years and he had lost touch with all his family. Lee felt so lonely in his grief he asked total strangers to attend his daughter’s funeral, so she would have a nice service.

The heartbroken father continued, saying that all he had in life was gone and he felt so lonely. He gave his modest estate to the church his daughter had attended and said, “Maybe in ten or twenty years, someone will see one of the plaques and wonder who Shirley Ellen Lee was and say, ‘Someone must have loved her very, very much’" but he was convinced that there would be no one who would remember James Lee.

The U.S. Surgeon General says our greatest public health crisis is isolation. That is just how our culture has evolved. In the last 25 years

•            Evenings spent with friends, family dinners, and the average person’s willingness to meet new people is down 33%.

•            Inviting friends to our homes is down almost 50%.

•            The average American has two close friends down from 3 in 1985.  I’m not sure what the other guy did, but apparently, they got voted off the island.  At that rate of decline another 30 years we won’t have any friends. We will all just all by ourselves listening to sad country music on our earbuds.

•            Today most people don’t know their neighbors.  There’s the young couple across the street, the old lady next door, and the weird guy who apparently doesn’t own curtains but does like to dance around his living room by himself in his underwear. (by the way, if I just described you, the neighbors asked me to tell you that you should invest in curtains.)  Not knowing neighbors might seem strange to you, but to most people that is a reality. 

•            What do people do when they are lonely? They go to Starbucks where they sit at one of those little tables just big enough for one cup of coffee and put their earbuds in or sit staring into the screen of their phone while they pretend that they aren’t lonely any more.

•            Or they come to church expecting someone else to initiate a relationship. But because we are all just as lonely and just as afraid of them as they are of us, we all leave disappointed and still lonely.

Maybe you don’t feel lonely much.  But I think we all do sometimes. Maybe you feel forgotten, ignored, discounted, isolated… but I place that under the big heading of loneliness.

It would be no surprise for you to know that widows and widowers, divorced people, welfare recipients, single mothers, housewives, and the elderly make the top ten list of the loneliest groups on America. But get this… The American Insurance institute says college students top the list. That might be surprising, but maybe not when they leave their family and friends for the first time and enter such a radically different culture to make their own way on a day to day basis. Whatever our situation we all feel lonely at least from time to time and some of us chronically.

Loneliness is not new. Crazy Noah, you know the weird neighbor building a boat in his back yard, he knew loneliness. Weird Moses who always carried that stick with him for 40 years.  David tried to solve his loneliness by taking up with Bathsheba. That didn’t work out so well.

Jesus knew loneliness too. He was driven into the desert to be tempted for 40 days, he often retreated to lonely places to pray, he prayed “My God, why have you forsaken me.”  Jesus knew loneliness.

And so, we come to Paul who wrote the book of Philippians which is the subject of the next 5 weeks of sermons. It has been called the epistle of Joy. The words joy and rejoice, and their derivatives are used 16 times in 4 short chapters.

But did you know that Paul wrote Philippians from Jail? Yes, he was in jail, mostly all by himself. Timothy came for a last visit before he was to be executed. Epaphroditus tried to help, but that was about it. Separated from his friends in his favorite church in Philippi, Paul writes wrote them a letter saying how much he misses them, and how he may never see them because he is to be put to death. He had no wife. No kids. No grandkids. No home. No hometown. No home churches. He’s not near his friends, or other people for that matter except the guard at the door. He should be lonely, right?  Here is a guy who should be, by all accounts, absolutely depressed. Here’s a guy who should be absolutely without hope. He should have been the loneliest guy on the face of the earth… but he wasn’t. He was very alone, very isolated, cut off from virtually all his supports, but he was NOT lonely.

Listen….

“I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you”

Does that sound like a guy who is depressed and lonely? I don’t think so. People who are depressed and lonely don’t often “pray with JOY in every one of their prayers.”

There is a good reason for that. There is a good reason for Paul’s Joy even though he should be lonely.

I’m going to call it Christian Friendship. But don’t just take that at face value.  I want to describe what that means.

Christian friendship is washed in prayer. Christian Friendship is walking as partners. Christian Friendship is about perfection.

 Let me unpack those. Christian Friendship is washed in prayer. That means that even though Paul was far from his friends they were still close in prayer. That means that even when we feel like no one cares, if we have a Christian Friend we know we have someone who is praying for us. It means even when we feel powerless, we always have the power of prayer. It means that when all else seems lost, we are not lost because we are being cradled in the prayers of our friend. You can see already that Christian friendship as I use it is different from most friends. It is a relationship based in prayer.

 Paul writes. “I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you” He writes, “It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart.” He continues “for all of you share in God’s grace with me,”

In part, Paul can have joy instead of loneliness in his desperate situation because he has Christian Friends and he knows they are praying for him just as he is praying for them.

Christian Friendship walk as partners. That means that even though Paul was far from his friends nothing could separate them. That means that even when we feel like no one cares, if we have a Christian Friend we know someone does and we are never alone. It means even when we feel most isolated, we need not feel lonely because whether they are physically present or not they are on our side.  It means that when all else seems lost, we are not lost because don’t take one step in life without our Christian Friends by our side.

Paul writes “I thank my God every time I remember you” and by implication every time he remembers that he is remembered. “because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now.” His Philippian friends always there, and never far away. “all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.”

 Christian Friendship is also about perfection. Now hear what I am saying.  I am not saying any of us are perfect, far from it. Perfection is a good Wesleyan term for the process of becoming the best child of God we can be. Christian friendship is about praying for one another, partnering with one another all to help the other person to be all that God wants them to be. They may surpass us in status.  They may become a better preacher or teacher or have a stronger faith. They may grow to have a stronger resistance to temptation than we do, but we are always seeking the best for them, and they are always seeking the best for us.

Paul writes “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”

 He continues, this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

 If you had a friend like that, don’t you think it would be easier to face the isolation of modern life. Don’t you think it would be easier to make it through the dark nights. Don’t you think it would be easier to face life with Joy rather than desperate loneliness?  I do. I have a couple of friends like that. They are truly CHRISTIAN FRIENDS by this stricter definition I have offered. Washed in prayer. Walking as partners. Seeking perfection.

You may have a friend like that, but I am pretty sure many of you do not.

Do you know what… this is your best place to make those friends.

I have been impressed by the quality of relationships and caring I have seen here. I have said we have the advantages of a large church but the heart of a small church. I think we really care for one another… but do any of your friendships here qualify as Christian friendships? Washed in prayer. Walking as partners. Seeking perfection?

If you are not in that kind of relationship, this is the place to make those friends.  But we have to do it on purpose.

We have to seek out someone with whom we feel that connection. We have to build that relationship. We have to covenant together to pray for one another, be partners in good times and bad, near and far, and always be seeking the best for the other person.

I have heard one thing that troubles me in the last 7 months. When I ask, “who was that person sitting next to you” I often get the answer “I don’t know a lot of people here.” When I ask if they know so and so, I get “I only know a few people here.”  We can’t even get started on being Christian friends if we don’t know each other’s names. I was hoping to have talked to the council about this before this sermon, but the meeting was postponed until this week because of the cold.  But this Wednesday I will be suggesting that we would benefit from going back to name tags.  I know you used to have them and they just kind of petered out.  But if we want to make a commitment to relationships and being the best Christian friends we can be, the first step is knowing one another’s names.  Not everyone will want to wear one, but those who do will be extending an open hand inviting others to enter into Christian friendship.

Until we do that… and it will take a little while if the council approves… until we get name tags, I want to hear a lot of people saying things like “I see you every week, but I don’t think I know you.” No one will be offended, chances are they would like to know your name too. Start building those relationships. Start seeking out those Christian friendships. Because it is in having good solid Christian friendship that along with Paul we will experience REVOLUTIONARY JOY.